


Pride Month Prompts

by NerdsbianHokie



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Various ships, be sure to read TWs for each chapter if there are any, prompt fills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 02:59:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 27,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14823941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdsbianHokie/pseuds/NerdsbianHokie
Summary: Fills to a Pride Month prompt thing I found on tumblr





	1. First Kiss - Alex/Lucy

**Author's Note:**

> [Prompts](http://nerdsbianhokie.tumblr.com/post/174287973933/cutequeerpositivity-the-2018-pride-prompt)
> 
>  
> 
> The ship will most likely change from prompt to prompt, depending on which ship I get an idea for.

Alex let her legs swing over the edge of the cliff. She fell back, landing in the grass, staring up at the stars.

On an average day, she would have a few bottles of beer next to her, but it wasn’t an average day.

Because Clark had decided to visit.

Because Clark had brought his girlfriend, Lois.

Because, for whatever reason, Lois had brought her little sister, Lucy.

With the extra people in the house, she hadn’t bothered risking getting caught. Never mind that she didn’t think she could bribe Clark with donuts the way she had Kara when the girl had caught her months back.

Alex closed her eyes. She let the sound of the waves below and the gulls above lull her.

She just had to get through the weekend.

Then things would go back to what they pretended was normal, and Alex wouldn’t be sharing a room with both an alien and Lucy.

Lucy, a year older and going to college in the fall and prettier than any girl Alex had met.

Lucy, who she couldn’t figure out. Who made her feel...something.

She opened her eyes at the light tapping on her shoulder.

Lucy.

Standing next to her, lowering herself to sit cross legged, holding two bottles of beer.

Alex pushed herself up, gratefully taking the offered bottle.

“Sorry,” Lucy said. “I know they can be a bit much.”

Alex shrugged. She pulled her keys out, using the bottle opener disguised as an extra key, then passing it to Lucy.

“Thanks for the beer. How’d you manage it?”

“They’re all distracted by Monopoly.”

Alex grimaced. “Whose idea was that?”

“Mine. Figured it would distract them enough for me to track you down.”

Alex raised her bottle in cheers before taking a drink. Her eyes widened at the taste. She pulled the bottle back, inspecting the label.

“This is not what my mom usually buys.”

“Present from Clark, I think. Some Smallville local thing.”

Alex tugged at a loose corner of the label as she read a blurb on the side about the brewery. She took another drink. “It’s disgusting.”

Lucy laughed, loud and clear. The noise made Alex smile.

“It really is, just don’t tell Clark that.”

“Noted.”

They sat, sipping their beers, watching as the sky turned pink and orange.

Alex glanced over every few moments, looking at the way the colors glowed against Lucy’s skin.

When she turned to find Lucy looking back, pain shot down her neck at the jerking movement to look forward again. She raised her bottle, finishing it off.

“Can I kiss you?”

Alex choked on the beer. Eyes wide, she turned to Lucy.

Dread took over Lucy’s face.

“I...I didn’t....I’m not…”

Alex took a deep breath. She let the bottle fall to the grass, and used her newly freed hand to cup Lucy’s cheek. Lucy’s hectic rambles stopped.

Lucy’s eyes were wide, were so pale, were reflecting the colors of the sky.

Alex glanced from eyes to lips to eyes. She pulled Lucy closer slowly, slowly.

Their lips met.

Lucy’s lips were soft and wet from the beer and gone a moment later.

They stared at each other for a few moments, smiles tugging at their lips.

“I’ve wanted to do that since we got here,” Lucy softly admitted.

Alex rubbed Lucy’s cheek with her thumb.

“I think I might have too,” she softly said.

Lucy grinned before pressing forward again for another kiss.


	2. Pets - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy didn't know Maggie had a dog

Lucy tried to not make it obvious that she was looking around Maggie’s apartment as she sat on the couch.

Tidy. Pizza box open on the counter. Bonsai trees on a few shelves. The TV was hooked up to an Xbox One and a PS3. The rest of shelving it was on was full of books.

Alex collapsed across the couch, head falling into Lucy’s lap, plate of pizza resting on her lap.

Maggie handed Lucy another plate. “What do you want to drink?”

“You still have some of that lemonade?”

Maggie nodded. “I’ll get you some.”

Lucy stared at her ass she she walked away, only to get distracted by the animal slinking around the corner of the couch.

Large, brown eyes, a droopy mouth, and greying fur around its mouth, the boxer stared at her for a moment before sniffing at Alex’s side.

“That’s a dog,” Lucy said.

“Good observational skills,” Alex said. She pulled the plate away from the dog, then scratched behind its ears.

“Maggie has a dog?”

A dog that was sniffing it’s way towards Lucy.

Lucy eyed it wearily, lifting her plate towards it.

Alex sat up. “You might want to…”

The dog jumped up, front paws landing in Lucy’s lap, head hitting the bottom of Lucy’s plate.

“...be careful,” Alex finished. She sighed. “Ellie, down.” She reached over, tugging on the rainbow collar around Ellie’s neck, but it didn’t do much.

Ellie nosed at Lucy’s stomach, paws scrabbling to pull her further up the couch. Lucy tried to shift away, but was trapped under Ellie’s weight.

“Not a dog fan?” Alex asked, trying to pull Ellie off again.

“Dogs are fine,” Lucy said. “Just not as great when on top of me.”

Alex chuckled.

Maggie stepped up, grabbing the collar more securely.

“Down, Ellie.”

Ellie huffed, but let herself be pulled away.

“Sorry, Luce,” Maggie said. “She can be a bit over friendly at times.”

Lucy nodded, eyeing Ellie, turning just in time to see the dog leap up towards Alex and steal her pizza.

“I think we’re going to get along just fine,” Lucy said, laughing at the look on Alex’s face.

Alex narrowed her eyes, then pulled the pizza off of Lucy’s plate, taking a large bite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ellie does have a backstory not included here. Maggie found her as a puppy, a year or two after Maggie was kicked out. Ellie was left on the side of the road (or something similar) by her mother's owners. She's nearing the end of her life, but still takes her chances to steal human food.


	3. Affirmation - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy struggles with some stuff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> References to internalized biphobia

Lucy trailed her finger around the rim of her glass. She glanced up at Alex and Maggie on the couch.

She could have been with them, curled up in each other’s arms, talking softly as the movie played, but she had taken the armchair. Her mind was preoccupied, racing but staying still at the same time.

It had been a stupid comment, from some news show she hadn’t even been watching earlier that day. Yet, she couldn’t get it out of her head.

_Well, I guess she finally picked a side._

_Guess she finally picked a side._

_Finally picked a side._

_Pick a side._

Maggie looked up, meeting her eyes before Lucy could look away.

Head tilt. Concern.

“What’s up, Luce?”

Alex looked up as well, brow furrowed.

Lucy stared, eyes wide at the sudden attention. She shook her head.

“Nothing.”

_pick a side_

Maggie raised an eyebrow.

Lucy leaned forward, holding the glass with both hands, leaning her forearms on her thighs.

“You don’t mind that I’m bi?”

The words drop softly, spread silence through the room.

The niggling concern Lucy hadn’t been able to drop since she had joined Alex and Maggie on that date.

Her lesbian girlfriends.

Who knew her ex-boyfriend. Who grinned at her reactions to hot men and women. Who had agreed that if she wanted to date outside the triad, she could date men and women. Who she knew didn’t care but…

_pick a side...pick a side...pick a side…_

“Of course we don’t mind,” Alex said, scooting as close to Lucy as she could while on the couch.

Lucy looked down. She stared at the iced tea in her glass.

“You don’t mind that I’m not sure if I’m ready to commit?”

“To women, or to us?”

She looked up at Maggie’s question. “Either.”

Maggie gave a small smile. “As far as we’re concerned, you are committed to us. Just because you’re open to starting other relationships, doesn’t make what you have with us less.”

“And it wouldn’t be fair for us to say you can’t date men,” Alex said. “That’d be like you saying we can’t date women.”

Lucy took a deep breath. “What if I never want to?”

“Then you don’t have to, and, Luce, you never have to choose between men and women,” Maggie said.

“C’mere.”

Lucy eyed Alex’s offered hand for a moment, then took it. She let herself be pulled to the couch, setting her cup on the coffee table on the way. She settled between the two, relaxing into their arms.

Maggie pressed a kiss to her temple. Alex pressed one to the top of her head.

“We wouldn’t want you any other way, Lucy,” Maggie murmured.

“And you can talk to us when you feel like this,” Alex added.

Lucy closed her eyes, leaning into them. “Thank you.”


	4. Closet - no ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even when you don't know you're closeted, you're closeted.  
> homophobia tw

Alex picked through the fries on her lunch tray, looking for the ones with the right crispiness. She pulled a few, bunching them together, then used them to mix the ketchup and mayo on the empty spot on the tray.

She rolled her eyes as Vickie leaned against her side for a moment, reaching around with her other arm to grab the pickles off of Alex’s tray.

“You know I’m going to give them to you,” Alex said. “Why the constant need to try and steal them?”

Vickie laughed. Her eyes lit up. Her cheek brushed against Alex’s.

“It’s more fun this way,” she said before pulling back. She tossed the pickles in her mouth, grinning as she chewed.

“You’re so weird,” Alex groaned.

Vickie shrugged. “You’re the one who mixes ketchup and mayo.”

“You just have no taste.”

Vickie scoffed, then let out a short chuckle. She jerked her head towards a table on the other side of the lunch area.

“Check out the new girl.”

Alex looked over.

The girl was sitting alone, reading a thick book as she took a bite from a sandwich.

“Her name’s Nicole,” Alex said. “She’s in my APUSH and PE classes.”

“Just be careful in the locker room.”

Ice ran down Alex’s spine. “What do you mean?”

“I heard she’s gay, never know what she might try.”

The word echoed around Alex’s head.

_ Gay. Gay. Gay gay gaygaygaygay _

She spun a fry between her fingers, dipping it in her sauce.

“I’ll be careful,” she murmured.


	5. Flowers - DS or Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Violets on her windowsill

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This can be read as either Sanvers or Director Sanvers. It's entirely up to you.

**** Maggie’s feet hurt. Her head hurt. She just wanted to grab the bag she had forgotten before her shift and head downtown.

A night at the bar would do wonders for cleansing her of the day she just went through.

She slipped her key into the lock, then jumped when the door right behind her opened.

“Maggie, hi,” Alex breathed out. “Just get home?”

Maggie nodded as she turned.

“Do you want to come in? Lucy managed to sneak some liquor past M’gann.”

Maggie looked past her, into the room. Lucy was leaning against the wall, still in her WAC uniform, jacket unbuttoned, tie off.

“Everyone trusts the uniform,” she said, raising a bottle by its neck.

Maggie laughed. “Thank you, but I’m actually about to leave again.”

Alex’s face fell. “Oh, okay. Well, have fun.”

Maggie nodded. She waved awkwardly before turning back to her door and slipping into her room.

She leaned back against the closed door once inside, taking a deep breath.

She would almost prefer spending the night with Alex and Lucy than go to the bar, but at least in the bar if she flirted with a woman, she wasn’t guaranteed to lose her home.

It could still happen, police raids weren’t uncommon after all.

She set her purse on her vanity chair, looked around the room for her other purse, and froze.

Flowers.

On her windowsill.

They hadn’t been there when she had left for her shift.

Someone had been in her room.

To leave her flowers.

To leave her  _ violets. _

She crossed the room, running her fingers over the soft petals

Who could have left it? Should she go to M’gann about someone breaking into her room? Had anyone else figured out her desire for women?

Noise roared in her ears.

She had to get out of there.

She grabbed the bag from under the foot of her bed and left the room

Alex’s door opened again.

Maggie froze.

“You sure you don’t want to join us?”

Maggie stared at her for a moment, before glancing towards Lucy in the room and…

Violets, on Alex’s windowsill. 

She looked back at Alex.

“Was it you?”

Alex’s eyes went wide.

“The flowers?”

“It was,” Lucy called.

Alex’s eyes went wider.

“I...we...it’s just…”

“Sure you don’t want to join us?” Lucy cut off Alex’s rambles.

Maggie glanced to Lucy again.

The patch on her shoulder, Maggie had seen it before.

It was the same one on Vasquez’s uniform.

“You don’t have to,” Alex said, “but if you want to, I think we’d, Lucy and I, both like it.”

Maggie’s fingers flexed around the handles of her bag. She had been looking forward to the bar her entire shift, but she wasn’t performing, so she didn’t have to go.

“I’d like it too.”


	6. Coffee Shop - Maggie/Lucy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Business owners make business deals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, this was supposed to be the 6th's prompt, but I got caught up in stuff, them my brain just went, nope, so have it today? Hopefully I'll catch up in a day or two.

Alex flipped the proposal over, scanning through the text on the other side of the page.

“How do they look?” Kara asked, sliding a plate full of pastries across the table, pulling a sticky bun back.

Alex picked through the plate for a moment before choosing a rainbow sprinkled donut.

“Do we have to do this?” Kara asked, pulling a piece of her sticky bun off.

“We need the boost a cafe would bring in,” Alex answered. She took a bite of her donut.

Kara scrunched up her nose. “This are amazing though. I cast my vote for this offer.”

“You've said that about every sample we've tried,” Alex pointed out.

Kara shrugged.

“It is really good,” Alex conceded, picking a sprinkle off of the icing dripping down the side of the donut. “But, we aren't basing this decision purely on taste.”

Kara huffed. “I know, I know. They need to match our ideals and blah blah blah.”

“It's serious, Kara. This is our business on the line.”

Alex leaned back in her chair. She looked across the shop at the cafe area that had been sitting unused since J'onn had left.

“Sales have gone down the last few months,” she said. “We can't afford that.”

Kara's head hit the table.

“Running a business is hard,” she whined into the wood.

Alex laughed. “Yup.”

She flipped the proposal back over.

Bi-nosaur Bakes and Coffee.

At least they knew the owners were queer friendly.

Which, well, considering the two women were married, was kind of a given.

They had a small online presence, designing cakes and pastries for special occasions, but were looking to open a store front.

In Alex's bookstore.

Kara pulled the proposal from her hand.

“Okay, listen. When they come in, we rearrange a bit, move the kids books and reading area to that corner by the cafe, have flag colored dinosaurs throughout that area to tie it all together.”

Alex looked at the cafe, trying to picture the stacks in different positions, the bean bags and stools moved to that corner, the paintings on the wall.

“It could work.”

Kara grinned. “Great. I'll contact, uh, Maggie, and her them come in for a meeting.”

Alex nodded, then took another bite of donut.

* * *

Maggie trailed a finger up the spine of a book before pulling it off of the shelf. She brushed the cover, smiling lightly.

_Annie on My Mind_

“Oh, that’s a classic.”

Maggie looked up.

A woman was leaning against the stacks, large brown eyes, brunette hair in an undercut with a streak of red tucked behind her ear.

“Yeah,” Maggie said. “It was the first lesbian novel I ever read, actually.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm.”

“Is there anything I can help you find?”

Maggie glanced down, finally noticing the purple ‘Turn the Page’ t-shirt she was wearing.

That had it’s sleeves cut off.

Really, what bookstore owner had arms like that?

Well, okay, so she and Lucy were bakers and had arms like that, but still.

“Alex Danvers?”

The woman blinked. “Yes?”

Maggie held out a hand. Alex shook it.

“Maggie Lane.”

“Oh, Bi-nosaur.”

Maggie laughed. “Lucy brings the bi, I bring the dinosaurs.”

Alex’s brow furrowed, even as her eyes flicked to the sleeve of dinosaurs tattooed on Maggie’s arm. “What?”

Maggie shook her head. “Inside joke, sorry.”

“I guess you’re here to see Kara? About the cafe?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s in the back, going through some inventory. I can go grab her for you.”

“That’d be great.”

Alex smiled before turning and walking off.

Maggie stared after her before putting the book back and pulling her phone out.

_To Luce: She’s hotter in person than in the pictures_

She slipped her phone back into her pocket, and looked around the shop.

While Turn the Page wasn’t explicitly a queer bookstore, it definitely leaned that way. Various pride flags hung on the back wall, over half of the stock was queer in some way, and it was well known that neither of the Danvers sisters who owned and ran it were straight.

Her phone buzzed.

_From Luce: am i gunna survive meeting her?_

_To Luce: You survived meeting me_

_From Luce: debatable_

Maggie laughed.

“Maggie?”

She looked up from her phone to see a blonde woman walking towards her.

“You must be Kara.”

Kara grinned.

“I am. I’m really excited to start figuring everything out with you.”

* * *

The sun was at the perfect angle to blind Lucy as she looked up at the bookstore sign. She had gotten back to National City barely half an hour ago and all she really wanted was to curl up in bed with her wife.

Who was in the bookstore overseeing some of the work for the cafe.

Lucy pushed into the store, the chime over the door trilling.

She wandered into the store, a soft ‘be right there’ coming from further back. She looked around as she walked. The pictures on the website really hadn’t done the place justice.

Or the woman who turned into the aisle.

Maggie was right, Alex was hotter in person than in pictures.

Alex’s brow furrowed. “Lucy Lane?”

“Yeah. Hi.”

“Maggie’s with us by the cafe. Why don’t you come back?”

Lucy nodded, then followed Alex. They made their way through biographies and Sci-fi and a small comic section. They turned a corner and the cafe was in front of them

And Maggie.

Who was leaning her hip against the barrier between the cafe and bookstore. Who was wearing a black tank top, tattoo fully visible, flannel hanging off of a chair nearby. Who was laughing at something the woman painting the wall said.

Who turned as they walked up, then was in Lucy’s arms.

“I've missed you,” Maggie murmured.

“It's only been a month,” Lucy laughed, but returned the hug with the same strength.

The last month had nothing on her deployments while still in the Army, but it hadn't necessarily been easy, either.

Maggie stepped back, keeping an arm around Lucy's waist and turning towards the sisters.

“Luce, this is Alex and Kara. Alex, Kara, my wife, Lucy.”

Alex nodded. Kara waved awkwardly over her shoulder, other hand pulling a paintbrush across the wall.

“It's nice to meet you,” Lucy said.

“So,” Maggie said, “what do you think so far?”

Lucy looked around the cafe, the display case, the logo painted in the upper corner of the wall behind the counter, the chalkboard menu.

The dinosaurs that covered the wall, leading from behind the counter to the area they were standing in the bookstore.

Kara was working on what looked like a brontosaurus colored in the the bi flag colors.

“I love it.”


	7. Shadows - Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They all had the same goal: away

Arms out.

Foot in front of foot in front of foot.

Head bowed. 

Foot in front of foot in front of foot.

Hair in front of eyes.

Foot in front of foot in front of foot.

You moved between shadow and light. The sun making itself known for moments before hiding again beyond the trees.

Foot in front of foot in front of foot.

Your ankle rolls, slipping off of the train track and into the mud beneath. You step off completely, regaining your balance.

Soft hands settle on your shoulder.

“You okay?”

Alex’s face is just inches from yours. Lucy is a bit further back, still shrouded in the shadow of the next tree.

“I’m fine.”

The pain has already subsided from sharp to throbbing.

You’ve had worse.

Alex looks towards the sun, squinting until she lifts a hand to shade her eyes.

“We should probably stop soon,” she says. “It’s almost dark.”

You nod. Your body aches from walking, from the pack digging into your shoulders, from jumping off of the train when the conductor had almost caught you.

Alex leads you and Lucy a short distance from the tracks, far enough to not get hit by anything falling off. You get the fire started as Alex takes her bow and vanishes further into the trees.

Lucy sits against a tree, a way away from you. Her cap is pulled low. She pulls a knife from her pocket.

You tense up, fist curling around the hilt of your own knife, then Lucy grabs a stick by where she sits and starts to whittle.

You pull your knife out, throwing it into the dirt so the handle is within easy reach.

The fire is roaring and the sun has set completely by the time Alex returns. She emerges from the shadows, a single squirrel in hand.

Cooking the squirrel is your job. Your time on the family farm proven a better lesson in cooking than Alex’s childhood on wagon trains and gold mine camps.

Lucy...Well, you’ve only known Lucy the day and she looks too prim, too proper to know how to gut a squirrel. She doesn’t move. Even as the light recedes to the halo of the fire, she stays in the shadow, she cuts away at sticks and branches.

You don’t mind. She could leave completely, as far as you care. If it hadn’t been for her, you would still be on that train, halfway to San Francisco.

Alex is nicer than you are.

“You’ll catch a chill out there.”

Her voice is sudden in the darkness, cutting through the cricket chirps and cracking fire wood.

“Or get bit something bad. Smoke’ll keep off some of the bugs.”

The silence returns.

You stare at the squirrel tail as it hangs from the corpse. Lucy can have that part, as far as you’re concerned.

More bone than meat.

Lucy emerges from the dark, pale face and dirty clothes.

You wonder where she is from, why she left, why she decided freighthopping was the solution to her problems.

You don’t really care, but you want the answers.

You really want to know why you won’t be able to curl up with Alex in a shared bedroll tonight.

But, you won’t push.

Alex hadn’t pushed when you joined her and you remember how much you had appreciated it then.

“You can stay with us as long as you need,” Alex says. She leans towards the fire, pokes at the squirrel with her knife. “We’re heading to California right now. Fastest way is a train to San Francisco before heading further north.”

Lucy doesn’t answer. She stares down at the wood and knife in her hands.

“Got anywhere specific you need to get to?” Alex asks.

Lucy glances up. Her eyes are pale in the firelight.

“Away.”

You scoff. You pull the squirrel off of the flame.

Away.

That is all any of you want.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1880s freighthopping au? I guess?


	8. Drawing on Skin - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Big ask

The desk was uncomfortable against Alex’s forehead. Her hood was up, blocking as much of the classroom’s harsh light as possible. Fingers curled around her wrist, tugging her outstretched arm to one of the adjacent desks.

“What’re you doing?” she mumbled.

There was no answer.

Something pointed dragged across her skin, lifted, then dragged again.

Alex opened one eye, tilted her head enough to see through her hair and past the hood.

Maggie was drawing on her arm with a pen. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her tongue poked out of her lips. Her dimples were just barely visible.

“What’re you doing?” Alex asked again.

“Drawing,” Maggie said.

Alex lifted her head to try to see what her girlfriend was drawing, only to have Maggie tug her hood down over her face.

“It’s a surprise,” Maggie said.

A thump from the other side of the desk cluster pulled Alex’s attention up.

“Lane? What’re you doing here?” Alex asked.

Lucy raised an eyebrow as she slid into the desk. “I got detention.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “I’d assumed that much. I mean, what did you do to end up with detention?”

“Did you punch someone?” Maggie asked, still staring at whatever she was drawing. “Alex punched someone.”

“I heard,” Lucy said as she pulled a textbook out of her backpack. “Is Kara okay?”

Alex shrugged. “She’s fine. She’s in the library studying until I’m out.”

“What about you, Maggie?” Lucy asked.

“Disruption to the classroom environment and disrespect,” Maggie answered, not looking up.

Lucy laughed. “Mouthing off again?”

“If they would just teach us actual history instead of that bullshit…”

“What are you doing?” Lucy asked.

“Rocket surgery.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. She flipped her textbook open.

“You still haven’t told us why you’re here,” Alex said.

Lucy glanced up from her textbook.

“Alright, everyone.” The voice cut through the chatter of the room. Alex looked up to Mr. J’onzz walking into the room. “Settle down, get to work on your homework.”

Lucy sent Alex a smirk, then looked back at her textbook.

Alex tried to pull her arm back, only to have Maggie tighten her hold on it. Alex sighed and started to work single handedly.

Not long after, Maggie pulled the pen from her skin and turned Alex’s arm slightly, inspecting her work. Alex tried, again, to pull her arm back, and, again, was denied. Maggie pulled the hoodie sleeve back up, hiding the work.

Maggie flung her own arm across the desks, towards Lucy. Lucy looked up, eyebrow raised. Maggie flexed her fingers, urging Lucy to pass an arm over.

Lucy sighed and did so before turning back to her book.

Alex watched Maggie begin to draw on Lucy’s arm, then went back to her math worksheet.

She lost track of time, working through the numbers, and before she knew it, Mr. J’onzz was calling for the end of detention and dismissing them.

“I’ll see you two later,” Maggie said, up and out of her seat before either of them could respond.

Alex threw a questioning look Lucy’s way, only to get a shrug in response.

“What’d she draw on your arm?” Alex asked, pulling her own sleeve up.

A T-Rex, with a speech bubble over its head.

_ Prom? We’d have a rawr-some time. _

Alex looked at Lucy, the same drawing on her arm.

She glanced around the room. Only Mr. J’onzz was still there.

“Our girlfriend is a nerd,” Alex said.

Lucy laughed. “Both of my girlfriends are nerds.”

“And what about you?”

Lucy grinned, flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“Oh, right, the vain one,” Alex said before Lucy could respond.

Lucy rolled her eyes. She packed her bag up.

“C’mon, lets go hunt her down and give her our answer.”

“We could let her sweat it for a little longer.”

“We could, but that’s rude.”

“I guess.” Alex swung her bag up to her shoulder. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that we're past the first week, I want to thank everyone for commenting. Also, I did post twice yesterday, and I know that sometimes updates that are close together get put in the same update email, so, just so everyone knows.


	9. Stars - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex grew up, guided by the stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is kinda long, and I marathoned most of it over a ten hour period. Hopefully, I’ll get to todays actual prompt later.
> 
> It's set in the same universe as the drawing on skin chapter
> 
> TW for mild homophobia and references to psychological child abuse, specifically isolation

Alex watched with wide eyes as the bouncy house grew big.

When Daddy and Mr. Olsen had first brought it in Mr. Olsen’s truck, it had been shorter than her. It had been shorter than Susan, who was a year younger and at _least_ a foot shorter.

Mommy had measured her that morning, making the mark in the kitchen, and she was three feet and four inches. Mommy had said that was good.

Alex figured Susan had to be more like two feet, because her birthday was after Alex’s, so she was still just two.

But the bouncy house? That was already bigger than Daddy, who Alex guessed had to be close to a hundred feet because that was the biggest number Alex knew and Daddy was the biggest person Alex knew.

It was red and blue and yellow and had balloons and stars painted on the sides.

Those were Alex’s favorite things.

Balloons and stars.

Mommy had even found her a star shaped balloon. Blue, like the ocean, which was her favorite color. It was tied around her wrist, so it didn’t fly off.

It wasn’t shaped like the David necklace Mommy wore, but like the stars she drew when Alex wanted a picture of the night sky.

Daddy smiled at her. He walked to her, lifting her off of the ground, and sitting her on the edge of the picnic table, where Mommy said she wasn’t supposed to sit, but Daddy was there, so it was probably okay.

“What d’you think, champ?” Daddy asked. “Like it?”

Alex nodded. Her bangs fell into her eyes from where they had gotten out of the headband Mommy put on her.

Daddy laughed. He fixed her headband.

“We really need to convince Mommy you need a haircut, don’t we?”

Alex nodded.

Daddy looked up, past Alex.

She twisted, but he picked her up and carried her as he walked towards the strange lady.

The strange lady was carrying a kid too. A girl.

Alex waved at her. The balloon bobbed in the air at the movement.

The girl waved back.

Alex looked up at Daddy for a moment, but he was busy talking to the strange lady, so Alex looked back at the girl.

Her shirt was white with a blue star on it.

And letters.

Alex squinted.

Mommy and Daddy had been teaching her letters and how to put them together.

A

She knew that one. That was the second word.

The first one.

I

M

With one of those promunctuation marks that Alex kept forgetting.

But, I-M. I’m.

Alex knew that one too.

I’m a.

“Alex.”

She looked up at Daddy.

“This is Mrs. Lane and her daughter Lucy. They just moved in next door.”

Alex looked at the house across the little walking street Mommy and Daddy told her to never cross without asking.

“Lucy is four as well. Why don’t you two go play?”

Alex nodded. “Okay.”

Daddy put her down. She grabbed Lucy’s hand and pulled her towards the play set she had gotten for her last birthday.

Once they got to the other side, by the ladder up, Alex stopped and stared at Lucy’s shirt.

One more work.

S

L

No. That was a T. it had the cross thing.

S

T

A

“What’cha doing?” Lucy asked.

R

S-T-A-R

Alex grinned. Mommy had taught her that word during breakfast.

“I’m a star,” she slowly read.

“What?” Lucy asked.

“Your shirt. It says I’m a star.” She pointed to each word as she read it.

“Oh.”

“Are you a star?”

“I guess? Do shirts lie?”

Alex shrugged. “I don’t think so. Adults make them, and adults aren’t supposda lie.”

“So, I’m a star.” Lucy grinned.

Alex grinned back.

“Good, cause stars are my favorite, and I think you’re gunna be my favorite friend.”

* * *

Branches scratched against Alex’s face. Twigs pressed into her knees through the dress her mother had forced her into that morning. Lucy shoved her slightly to look through the gap in the bush.

They weren’t supposed to be there.

Alex had been told over and over to not go to Mr. Sawyer and Ms. Rodas’ yard that day, that they were having a party and Alex wasn’t supposed to go. Kids weren’t supposed to go.

But the balloons, white and light blue and three - Alex had counted - dark blue with stars, were pretty.

But Lucy had pouted and grabbed Alex’s hand and pulled her down the path.

Alex didn’t understand why her mother had kept calling it a party, when it was a wedding. Alex knew what weddings were. She didn’t know they could have weddings not in a synagogue, but these people were.

Unless, maybe weddings were a type of party?

That made sense, Alex guessed.

“Kids are too allowed,” Lucy said. She pointed, to where Mr. Sawyer and Ms. Rodas were standing. A girl about their age, in a dress much nicer than Alex’s, was holding a basket.

“Maybe just we aren’t allowed,” Alex whispered, more worried than Lucy about getting caught.

“Maybe just you aren’t allowed.”

Alex squinted at Lucy.

She was her bestest friend in the whole entire world, but she could be mean sometimes.

But, Alex could be mean sometimes too, so she tried to not be mad about it.

“They’re kissing,” Lucy said.

Alex looked back at the party wedding.

Mr. Sawyer and Ms. Rodas were kissing.

“Why are they doing that?” she asked.

Lucy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Alex furrowed her brow, staring at the adults. Her mom and dad kissed, but that’s because they loved each other and were best friends.

Oh.

“It’s because they’re friends,” Alex said. “Best friends. And that’s how best friends show each other they’re best friends.”

“We’re best friends, and we don’t kiss.”

“Maybe it’s a adult only thing? Like the fancy ice cream.”

“That’s stupid.”

Alex pulled further back into the bush that lined the path. Lucy followed her.

Alex squinted at her, nose furrowing, head tilted.

She leaned forward, pressed her lips against Lucy’s for a moment.

“You’re my best friend, Lucy.”

Lucy kissed her back.

“You’re my best friend, Alex.”

* * *

“Alright, kids,” Alex’s dad said. “If you need anything, me and Mr. Donahue are in the other tent, just come get us.”

They all nodded and he zipped up the tent flap.

Alex glanced up at the baby walkie talkie he had stuck in the top of the tent. She was pretty sure the others hadn’t noticed it. She was glad it was there. This was the first time the adults were letting them sleep in the tent without an adult, but knowing her dad could hear them if something bad happened made Alex feel safer.

Like when he checked the closet and behind her bookshelf for monsters at night.

“What do we do now?” Vicky asked. She was already in her sleeping bag.

Alex glanced towards where her’s and Lucy’s and Susan’s were all splayed open, making a giant sleeping pad, blankets piled nearby for when they decided to go to sleep.

“We can play Hungry Hungry Hippos,” Susan suggested. She poked at the pile of board games in the corner.

They almost never got to play Hungry Hungry Hippos because there were usually five of them, but James’ family was doing a family thing because his dad was about to leave.

“I call pink,” Lucy said.

They quickly set up the game.

Alex ended up with the orange hippo, pressed between Lucy and Susan.

The game went quickly. Then the next. And the next.

Lucy won all three of them.

“Let’s do something else,” Vicky said.

Alex fell back onto the sleeping bags.

“I wish we could see the stars.”

Some nights, they would leave the top of the tent uncovered, and could see the sky all night.

But her dad had said no when she had asked. He had said there was a chance of rain in the morning. Alex was pretty sure he didn’t want to have to dry the inside of the tent again.

“I have an idea,” Lucy said. She pulled a collection of Sharpie’s from her bag. “We can make our own stars.”

She dropped the Sharpie’s on the floor except for one, which she uncapped and scooted towards the side of the tent.

Alex grinned as Lucy started to draw a star. She grabbed another Sharpie and started drawing on another part of the tent.

That morning, she woke to birds chirping, stars clinging to the fabric above her, and her best friend holding her hand as she slept.

* * *

Alex moved quietly. She circled around the towels until the sun sent her shadow away from the girls on the towels.

The bucket in her hands was heavy, but it would be so worth it.

Alex glanced back towards James and Vasquez - who had asked them all the other week to just call them Vasquez, instead of her first name, which Alex didn’t fully get, but if that was what her friend wanted. They both gave her a thumbs up as they floated out in the water.

She eyed the sleeping girls for a moment longer, then struck.

Lucy and Vicky shrieked. Alex bolted.

She had just reached the water when she was tackled from behind. She went face first into the oncoming wave, ducked through it, and floated up on the other side.

Lucy wasn’t so lucky.

Alex’s eyes went wide as she watched Lucy get dragged by the wave. She appeared for a moment, only to have the next wave break over her.

Alex moved as quickly as she could towards her.

Her dad had told her to be careful when trying to help someone, that it was better to get an adult who was bigger and stronger.

Like her dad, who was already swimming towards them from where he had been floating with James and Vasquez.

But this was Lucy.

Lucy was her best friend.

Alex _had_ to.

She let a wave carry her forward, and grabbed Lucy’s arm, and pulled.

Lucy tried to climb to her feet, but another wave hit them.

“C’mon, Lucy,” Alex cried.

She pulled again and the next wave pushed them far enough up the sand for Lucy to crawl up.

Just as Alex’s dad reached them.

He pulled Lucy up, helping her bend forward, rubbing her back as she coughed and gasped for air.

Alex watched with wide eyes.

“Lucy?”

Lucy turned her head enough to glare at Alex through her wet hair.

And she was moving, tackling Alex again, up onto the sand this time. She sat on Alex’s stomach and flexed her arms like the men on TV did sometimes.

“I am Lucy! Hear me roar!”

Alex tickled her stomach, bare from the new two-piece bathing suit she had just gotten - the first in their group, not even Vicky had a two-piece yet. Lucy screamed.

Alex rolled them over, sitting on top of Lucy instead. “Okay, roar.”

Lucy pouted up at her.

A wave made its way up the sand, spreading under Lucy’s legs.

“You’re mean,” Lucy said.

“I just saved your life.”

Lucy scoffed. “Barely.”

“I did.”

“It was a gold star effort, kid,” Alex’s dad said, stepping up to them and ruffling her hair. “You alright, Lucy?”

“Yes, Mr. Danvers. Thank you, Mr. Danvers.”

“You’re welcome, Lucy.” He grinned at them. “Now play nice, you two.”

“We will,” they both chorused.

Alex watched him make his way to where the other parents were, just past Vicky, who was watching her and Lucy with a weird expression.

Alex furrowed her brow, tilted her head, then Lucy pushed her off and into the oncoming water climbing up the sand.

“Last one in’s a rotten egg,” Lucy called, sprinting into the water.

Alex jumped to her feet and raced after her.

* * *

Everything was soft.

The sand beneath the blanket.

The crash of the waves a few feet away.

The cadence of her father’s voice as he told the stories of the stars above.

Lucy’s hand in hers.

Alex squeezed.

They had stopped holding hands at school a few weeks back. The laughter and whispers of gay gay _gaylesbiangay_ still circled Alex’s head at night.

She didn’t understand why she couldn’t hold Lucy’s hand. They had been holding hands their entire lives, why did they have to stop? Just because they were done with elementary school? Just because Vicky said they had to and middle schoolers didn’t hold hands so they should just stop being weird babies and get used to it?

Alex squeezed Lucy’s hand again. Lucy shifted closer to her, head pressing slightly against Alex’s shoulder.

What did Vicky know anyway? She was probably just jealous cause she didn’t see them as much since her parents moved.

Her father lifted her hand, tracing a familiar pattern.

Leo.

Lucy’s stars.

“The Nemean Lion,” he said. “The first of the twelve labors of Hercules.”

Lucy shifted, curling into Alex’s side, an arm thrown over her stomach. Alex leaned her head against Lucy’s.

“Happy birthday, Lucy” she murmured.

* * *

Alex sniffed. She wiped the snot running from her nose away with the cuff of her sleeve.

She stared at the crashing waves, daring each one to make it’s way up the sand to her. Her day was already bad enough, why not add wet pants to it?

She glanced up briefly, at the stars, at Leo handing over the horizon.

“Alex?”

She didn’t look up at her dad's voice. She squeezed her knees tighter to her chest, squeezed her eyes shut, sending tears down her cheeks.

A slight brush against her shoulder let her know that he had sat next to her, but he made no further contact.

Alex sniffed.

“Why’d he take her away?”

Her dad sighed. “You know why, Alex.”

She lifted her head, looked to him. Her jaw trembled.

“But we’ve gotten in trouble before! Worse trouble!”

They had. They had been suspended for a week, then spent the last month of seventh grade in detention after they had dyed the school pool water black.

Releasing the frogs from science class out the window seemed like nothing next to that. They’d only gotten a weeks detention.

And, yet.

Lucy was gone. Her father, in town for a few weeks between assignments, had decided she needed more structure, had decided she should go with him to his next assignment.

Alex sucked in a shaky breath. She could barely make out her father through her tears.

“Why?”

Her dad sighed. He reached out, pulled her into a hug.

“Sometimes, parents make decisions about their kids that don’t make sense at first, but he has his reasons, whether you like them or not.”

A sob ripped from her chest. She curled into her father, tears soaking his shirt. He held her tight, rubbed her back, brushed her hair back.

When her sobs calmed, she turned her head to look out at the stars falling into the horizon.

“I miss her.”

“I know, champ, I know.”

* * *

The waves rocked Alex’s board as she laid on top.

The surf was nowhere near enough to actually surf.

This though, just laying and letting the ocean move her as she stared at the clouds cross the sky? That she could do.

A month.

A full month and she still hadn’t heard from Lucy.

No phones calls. No emails.

Even Mrs. Lane wouldn’t tell her anything other than that she was with her father and would contact Alex when she could.

Alex was starting to think that was never going to happen.

She sighed, rolling over and sitting up, legs falling into the water on either side of the board.

She traced her finger over the edge of the star sharpied on the nose of her board.

Lucy would never choose to not contact her. Never.

* * *

“Wow.”

Alex looked up at Vasquez’s whisper.

Vasquez was staring down the beach, one of the tourist ones, not the one by their houses. They had ridden their bikes down with James and the new kid, Winn.

The beach wasn’t as nice. There were more people, more trash left behind, and the surf wasn’t as good. But, the arcade was there, and an actual skate part, not the pop-up ramp Vasquez’s parents set up in the street sometimes. And it was nearly winter, so there were less tourists than usual, just the people who wanted to avoid the summer crowds.

Alex followed Vasquez’s gaze.

A lifeguard, walking around her post.

Alex stared, longs legs and dark skin and hair in tight curls around her face.

Alex pulled her gaze away. She stared at the ocean picked at the sticker on her skateboard, stars, Leo.

“Dude at the ice cream place gave us a discount,” James’ voice said from behind them. “So we’ve got an extra buck for the arcade.”

* * *

Light glinted off of the Megan David as it hung from the chain. Alex watched it spin until it stopped.

She swallowed.

“She saved her allowance for three months until she could afford it,” Mrs. Lane said. “I know she hasn’t been able to contact you, but I also know she’d still want you to have it.”

Alex nodded, throat too tight to speak.

At times, Lucy had seemed more excited for Alex’s bat mitzvah than Alex was. She had even helped Alex study at times.

“She misses you,” Mrs. Lane said. “I do know that. She misses you so much.”

Alex nodded again, trying to blink away her tears. She pulled her gaze away from the Megan David, and up at Mrs. Lane.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, and happy birthday, Alex.”

Alex nodded once more as Mrs. Lane turned and started back down the path. Alex closed the door.

She stared at the necklace for a moment, before putting it on, and slipping the Megan David under her shirt.

* * *

Alex chewed on her bottom lip. She stepped over the spot on the floor that would creak, then groaned when Kara stepped right on it a moment later.

“Quiet, Kara,” she hissed.

“I’m sorry, I’m trying.”

Alex rolled her eyes. Sure, Kara had only been there for a few weeks, but she could float, why'd she even have to walk through the house anyway? She glanced down the hall, to her parents room. The light was still out. Perfect.

“Try harder.”

She set off again, through the kitchen, to the back porch. She grinned as the breeze hit her, as the chill of the night settled on her.

“I thought we sent you to bed hours ago.”

Alex froze. She slowly turned.

Her parents were on the porch swing.

Both of them.

“Um.”

Her father raised an eyebrow. Her mother tried to hide a smile behind her mug.

Tension bled out of Alex. They weren’t mad.

“I just wanted to show Kara the stars. Teach her how we see them, the constellations and everything.”

Her mother leaned towards her father, whispered in her ear. He grinned.

“That’s a great idea.”

Alex let out a breath.

“Why don’t we join you?” he continued. “We’ll get the blanket, heat up some cocoa, just like we used to.”

Alex faltered for a moment. The last time her father had sat out on the beach with her, telling her the stories of the stars, Lucy had been there. She took a deep breath.

“Yeah. What do you think, Kara?”

Kara, half hidden behind her, nodded.

“Great,” her father said. “Why don’t you two go find a good spot, and we’ll join you with the stuff.”

Alex nodded. She took Kara’s hand, leading her through the yard. She dropped Kara’s limp hand once they stepped into the sand.

It was soft under her bare feet. The full moon shone bright, reflecting off the water.

“You did this before?” Kara asked. “As a family?”

Alex nodded. Her parents liked to tell the story from when she was a baby, and would only fall asleep if they took walks along the beach while holding her.

Kara didn’t need to know that, though.

“We’d camp out here sometimes, too,” she said instead.

“Camp?”

“Yeah. We’d pitch a tent - a, uh, temporary cloth...thing - and sleep out here for the night.”

“Oh.” Kara stepped towards the water. “Can we try that? One night?”

“Sure. A few of us usually do it the first day of spring break, if you wanna join.”

They had kept up that tradition even after Lucy had left, her and Vasquez and James. Although, James had insisted a few years back on getting his own tent, and was grateful he hadn’t gotten a single since Winn had moved in down The Path.

“I would like that.”

Alex nodded.

It was still weird, having a sister, but sometimes it was almost acceptable.

* * *

Alex stepped off of her skateboard, pressed down on the tail before it rolled too far away, catching the nose. She kept walking, stepping in time with Vasquez.

_They,_ Alex thought. _They, they they._ Her mantra every time she saw her friend since they had first explained the pronoun change.

“You finish the math homework?” she asked, tucking her board under her arm.

“Yeah. What’d you get for question eight? I’m pretty sure I got it right, but I’m also not sure I used the right equation.”

“Uh, 28.3?”

“Yeah, that’s what I got.”

They pushed through the front doors of the school.

“Well, at least we’re in it together.”

Alex laughed, eyes scanning the crowd. Kara had been dropped of early by her mom for history tutoring. Alex had been tasked with bringing her a second breakfast.

She didn’t find Kara, but someone else caught her eye.

“Who’s that with Winn?” she asked, eyeing the duo walking out of the main office. “New foster?”

Vasquez shrugged. “Dunno. She moved in late last night, saw a car drop her off.”

“Transferring with barely a month left. Harsh.”

Winn looked away from the girl. He waved them over when he saw them.

“Hey, guys, this is Maggie, just moved in with me. Maggie, this is Alex and Vasquez. They’re in your grade and live on The Path as well.”

Maggie nodded at them, hands grasping at the single backpack strap up on her shoulder. She blinked after a moment, and turned to Winn.

“The Path?”

“Oh, right, didn’t tell you. That walking path behind the house? That’s The Path. All of our yards are on it. Well, Alex’s only kinda is, cause her house is the one right past where it branches and you can go to either the street or the beach.”

“Oh.”

“You got your schedule yet?” Vasquez asked.

Maggie nodded, glancing at Winn. He fumbled with a binder way to neat to be his, showing a loose sheet of paper held in place by a paperclip.

“I got it, cause she doesn’t know the school yet, right? Thought I’d show her to her first class.”

Vasquez took the binder.

Alex stared at Maggie for a moment.

She looked sad.

Alex wanted to make her happy, help her with what was making her sad.

Maggie looked at her, the overhead lights making her eyes sparkle.

Alex looked away, head jerking towards the schedule.

“You’ve got a few classes with us,” Vasquez said.

Alex nodded. She glanced up. Maggie wasn’t looking at her anymore, but staring at the ground.

“And photography with James,” Winn cut in. “He’s one of our other friends. He’s a cool dude. Bit intimidating, tallest kid in your grade, but he’s really nice.”

“Alex and I can show her around,” Vasquez said. “We’ve all got Sykes first period, then Alex is in her English class.”

Winn nodded. “Cool. I’m gunna go find Kara, then.”

“Oh.” Alex set her board on the ground, leaning it against her leg, and swung her back around to pull Kara’s breakfast out. “Give this to her?”

Winn took it, saluted, and slipped into the crowd.

“Sorry about him,” Vasquez said, handing Maggie the binder. “He’s a bit talkative.”

Maggie shrugged. “It’s fine.” She hugged the binder to her chest, still gripping the single strap with both hands.

They started down the hall. Alex let herself fall a step behind, the hallway too narrow for three across.

“So,” Vasquez said. “Where’d you move from?”

Maggie sucked in a deep breath. Her backpack, black with multicolored stars, swung with every step.

“Nebraska,” she said.

“You a farmer?”

“No. You a surfer?”

“Yes. So is Alex.”

Maggie looked over her shoulder at Alex. “Really?”

Alex shrugged.

* * *

“You sure we’ll all fit in there?”

Alex looked up from the hole she was filling. Maggie was staring at the tent, head tilted, arms crossed.

“There’ll only be four of us in there,” she answered. “And you’re small, it’ll be fine.”

Maggie narrowed her eyes at her. “Funny.”

“I try.”

Maggie sighed. She walked towards her. “You sure it’s cool that I’m joining?”

Alex nodded. She tugged on the line leading into the hole and the driftwood it was tied to, then started to fill it again.

“Of course it’s cool. You’re in the group now.”

Maggie kicked at some sand. “For, like, a month.”

“Kara first joined us on spring break after barely a month.”

“But she’s your sister.”

“So? Winn joined us last year, and he wasn’t anything to any of us before he moved here.”

Maggie picked up the other shovel and started to help.

“How long have you been doing this?”

“Camping on the beach? Or the whole, first night of summer vacation camping?”

“Either? Both?”

“General camping, as long as I can remember. On the beach, in someone’s backyard, in someone’s living room, we did it constantly.”

She pushed the last bit of sand into the hole then fell back so she was sitting, staring at the ocean.

“Summer vacation started in fourth grade, I think?” She picked up some sand and threw it into the wind so it blew away from her and Maggie. “It was Me, James, Vasquez, Lucy, and Vicky that year.”

“Vicky? Vicky Donahue? Local mean girl?”

Alex hummed. “She was in our group until middle school. Then her family moved to the other side of town, she grew a pair of boobs, and started a rumor that Lucy and I were gay.”

“That was her?”

Alex glanced at her, eyebrow raised. “Is that still going around?”

“Yeah, someone came up to me when I first moved here, warned me against being friends with you.”

“Huh.”

“Course, her face when I told her that I’m gay was priceless.”

Alex laughed. “I can only imagine.”

“I always thought California was supposed to be super accepting.”

Alex shrugged. “I guess it’s better than some places.” She threw another handful of sand. “How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Be so...open? About it.”

Maggie let out a dark laugh. “I’m not, really.”

Alex took a deep breath. “I can’t seem to do it.”

Silence.

“Oh.”

Alex glanced over at Maggie.

“Are you…”

“Maybe? I think? A little?”

“Oh.”

Alex pushed herself up. She turned towards the entrance of the tent.

“We should probably check the…” She trailed off, not really sure what they should check, but wanting to get away.

She trailed a hand up the edge of the tent, tracing the inked stars that had bled through the fabric. She unzipped the flap, did her best to get the sand off of her feet, and stepped inside.

The stars from all those years ago were blurred on the edges, but the sharpie had proved tough. She reached up to trace the edges of the largest.

Lucy had drawn that one, boosted up by Alex and Vasquez to reach the top of the tent..

Fingers wrapped around her wrist. She was spun around and…

Lips, on hers.

Maggie was kissing her.

_Maggie_ was kissing her.

Maggie pulled back before Alex could react.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. I’ll go. I’ll…”

Alex pulled her back, hands cupping Maggie’s face.

She hadn’t kissed anyone since Steve at the eighth grade dance.

She hadn’t not hated a kiss since…

Five years old and at a neighbors wedding and kissing Lucy in the bushes because that’s what best friends did, right?

She pulled back from Maggie.

Maggie, with stars in her eyes and dimples on her cheeks.

“Just a little?” Maggie murmured.

“At least a little,” Alex replied.

* * *

Everything was muted, grey, numb.

Alex’s toes curled around the edge of the top step. Her knuckled turned weight from her grip of the railing. Her balance was off after having pulled her step short.

Her balance was off after what the man at the door had said.

She hadn’t heard anything since. She couldn’t hear anything.

Her ears roared.

She was trapped under the water between waves.

She couldn’t hear.

The world distorted around her eyes.

She couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t breathe.

The door closed.

Her mother.

Her mother was looking up at her.

Her mother was saying something but Alex couldn’t hear.

Couldn’t hear.

Couldn’t breathe.

Couldn’t...couldn’t…

One step back.

Another.

Another.

Turn.

She made it to her bedroom one step at a time, her legs pulled back by the waves she was trapped under, treading water, unable to surface.

Close the door.

Flip the lock.

Breathe.

Breathe.

She couldn’t.

She looked around the room.

Kara’s boy band posters.

Her surfing trophies.

The open closet.

Beds.

Nightstands.

Desk.

Star chart.

She stepped forward.

The star chart of the night she was born, framed and hanging over her bed.

She needed…

She needed…

She needed her dad.

But he was...

Soft knocks cut through the roar.

Alex squeezed her eyes tight, shook her head.

No.

No.

He couldn’t be.

“Alex?”

No.

Out the window.

Down the railing.

Across the yard.

Sand, soft beneath her bare feet.

Stars, falling into the horizon.

~~

It wasn’t her mom who sat next to her the next morning, when she still hadn’t moved. It wasn’t Kara. It wasn’t Maggie.

It wasn’t her father like it had almost always been.

And never would be again.

“It still hurts.”

It was James.

“I remember when the knocks came.” He sucked in a breath. “Mom just burst into tears. Her worst fear come true.”

Alex leaned into him. He wrapped an arm around her.

“I don’t think it ever stops hurting,” he whispered.

* * *

The wrapping paper crinkled as Alex passed the box from hand to hand. She shifted from foot to foot.

She had never actually given anyone a Christmas present before. In the past, she has always given one friend a gift on each day of Chanukah.

But, it was Maggie’s first Christmas away from her family, since her family had cast her out. Alex knew it was a rough day for Maggie, and if she could do anything to make it better, she would.

She knocked on the door. It was a few long moments before there was an answer.

Mrs. Sawyer, wearing Santa Claus decorated pajamas.

“Alex, welcome, Merry Christmas.”

“Um, right, yeah. Merry...Merry Christmas. I..I just have something for Maggie.”

She lifted the gift slightly.

“Of course, come on in.”

Alex followed her inside, looking around with wide eyes.

String lights and Santa Claus’ filled every empty space, even more so than when she had been over earlier that week. The living room was bright, the lights on the Christmas tree glowing, the star on top almost hitting the ceiling.

Maggie was curled in the corner of the couch, a small pile of opened gifts next to her and a pile of wrapping paper on the floor. She smiled at the sight of Alex, but Alex could see the tightness in the corners.

Alex handed the gift out. “Um. Merry Christmas.”

The reds and greens of the Christmas lights shone harshly on the pale blue of her Chanukah wrapping paper.

Maggie took it, slowly, carefully unwrapping it.

She dropped the paper to the floor, blue amongst reds and greens, and opened the box. She smiled as she pulled the beanie out.

She pulled it on, black side visible, then folded up the edge so the rainbow swirl pattern inside was visible.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

* * *

Alex took a deep breath. She adjusted the position of her right foot. She glanced around the halfpipe, making sure nobody was in the way, then dropped in.

Down

Up

Down

Up

Down

Up

Grind

Down

Up

Stall

Down

Stall

Riverdance

Bust

Alex slid down the ramp on her knees. She stopped at the bottom, looked up.

A moving truck. A small Uhaul, in front of the Lane’s place.

“You good, Alex?” Vasquez yelled from the top of the ramp.

Alex nodded absently, getting to her feet. She unbuckled her helmet, letting it fall to the boards.

“Alex?” Maggie prompted.

Alex was running.

“Lucy! Lucy!”

Lucy turned.

Lucy grinned.

Lucy almost ended up on the ground as Alex barrelled into her.

They stumbled for a few feet, arms tight around each other, faces pressed into hair.

Alex pulled back, but kept her hands on Lucy’s shoulders.

“You’re here.”

“I’m here.”

“Are you here here?”

“I’m here here.”

Alex laughed, pulled Lucy in for another hug.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Alex whispered.

“Me too.”

They pulled apart again. Alex let her hands drop, one reaching out for Lucy’s on instinct.

“I tried to call you, or find you on MySpace, but…”

Lucy shook her head. “Dad got rid of my phone, wouldn’t let me get online accounts.”

“And you let him stop you?”

A dark look crossed Lucy’s face.

“Lucy?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m back, that’s all that matters.”

“Damn, right,” Vasquez said from behind Alex.

They stepped up, pulling Lucy into a hug.

Alex’s hand felt cold as Lucy dropped it. She shoved it into her pocket.

“Look at you,” Vasquez said. “Still as tall as you ever were.”

“Shut up,” Lucy said.

“Have you grown at all since you were twelve?”

“I have, yes.”

“Clearly not enough.”

“I will fight you.”

Vasquez laughed. “I’ve missed you.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Lucy looked around the rest of the group.

“James is off doing some photography thing,” Vasquez said. “But he’s still around.”

“These assholes are Kara, Maggie, and Winn. Guys, this is Lucy.”

“The Lucy?” Kara asked.

“I’m a ‘the’? I’m flattered,” Lucy said.

“I thought you said she got abducted by aliens?” Winn said.

Alex bit back a laugh as Kara flicked her arm. It would definitely bruise, but so worth it.

“Pretty much what happened,” Lucy said. She glanced back the way they came. “When’d that happen?” she asked, jerking her head towards the halfpipe.

“Over the summer,” Alex said. “We all chipped in to build it.”

“Cool. I haven’t even touched a board in years.”

“Jeez, what’d he do, lock you in a tower?” Vasquez asked.

Alex noticed the falter in Lucy’s smile, the slight tremble in her next breath before she laughed.

“Something like that.”

Her head jerked to the side at the sound of the house door closing. Alex looked over to see Mrs. Lane walking down the path.

“Hey, kids,” she said, waving as they all responded. “Lucy, you ready to go to the school?”

Lucy nodded. “Yeah, mom.” She looked at the group. “I’ll catch up with y’all later.”

She turned, and followed her mother to the car before they could respond.

Vasquez turned to Alex. “Did she just say ‘y’all’?”

“Yup.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Nope.”

“So,” Maggie drawled, stepping up to Alex’s side. “That was Lucy.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s cute.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah.”

“You okay?”

Alex looked at her, at the concern on her face. “Yeah, it’s just…” she shook her head. “It’s nothing. C’mon, I wanna get that trick.”

Alex laid in bed that night, mind racing.

Lucy was back.

She had definitely had a crush on Lucy when they were kids.

Something was off about Lucy, something about her time with her father.

How was she going to come out to Lucy?

Would Maggie care that she had a crush on Lucy?

What had happened?

Why was Lucy back?

Soft knocks on the widow broke the circle of thoughts, the pattern familiar in the way reading the picture books her mom made her keep on her bookshelf was.

She wrapped the blanket around herself as she slid out of bed. She opened the window and climbed out.

She wrapped an arm around Lucy’s shoulders, pulling her into the blanket.

Lucy curled into her, fingers toying with the hem of Alex’s shirt.

Alex leaned her head against the top of Lucy’s and started out at the ocean, at the clouds blocking most of the stars from sight.

It felt like nothing had changed, like Lucy hadn’t been gone for years.

“Tell me about the new kids,” Lucy mumbled after a time.

Alex squeezed her lightly.

“Well, Winn was first. He was adopted by the Sawyer’s down The Path, a few months after you left. He’s a good kid, talks really fast, though. Crazy good with computers. Then, about a year after, my parents adopted Kara.”

“She’s your sister?”

Alex nodded. “Yup. I now know Lois’ pain.”

Lucy pinched her.

“She’s not bad though. Eats a lot, takes too much time in the bathroom each morning, but not bad.”

“And Maggie?”

Alex tensed slightly. Her throat closed for a moment.

“She, uh, moved in with the Sawyers as well. She’s Mrs. Sawyer’s niece, actually. A few months after Kara showed up, she moved in.”

Lucy hummed. “Anything else major happen while I was gone?”

“Well, we all started puberty, then high school, then drugs.”

Lucy laughed. “Alex Danvers doing drugs, that’s a thought.”

Alex took a deep breath. She stared at Leo in the sky.

“My dad died.”

Lucy pulled away, just enough to look at Alex.

“What?”

Alex nodded. “The week before Thanksgiving. Plane crash while traveling for work.”

“Alex, I…”

Alex shook her head, brushed a tear away with the edge of the blanket. “It’s fine, you know. It’s…” she shrugged.

Lucy curled back into her.

“You don’t have to act strong about it around me.”

Alex shrugged again.

“I never got to tell him,” she murmured after a few moments.

“Tell him what?”

Alex traced the stars of Leo.

Denebola

Algieba

Adhafera

Regulus

“I’m gay, Lucy.”

Lucy didn’t pull away, didn’t stop toying with Alex’s shirt.

“I’m gay. I’ve been dating Maggie for almost eleven months now. Only the group knows.”

Lucy didn’t move, didn’t pull away, didn’t start yelling.

Alex slowly relaxed again.

“I found out why he took me,” Lucy eventually said. “It wasn’t the frogs, not really. It was you.”

Alex’s stomach clenched.

“He didn’t like the influence he thought you were having on me. He thought you were going to…” she trailed off, fist twisting around Alex’s shirt. “Going to…”

Alex took a deep breath, spoke slowly. “Make you gay?”

Lucy sniffed. She nodded.

“I’m sorry, Alex.”

“Hey, no.” Alex pulled her closer, squeezed her. “Your dad being an asshole is not on you, at all.”

“He controlled everything. What I wore. What I did in my free time. Who I hung out with outside of school.”

She shivered against Alex, who held her even tighter.

“He listened to every phone call I made to my mom, to make sure I didn’t try to make any plans to contact you. He had all my passwords and some program on the computer that tracked history. Then, when he was deployed, he sent me to this school that was even worse. No free computer or TV time, all calls were monitored, even time outside was structured. And I...I missed you so much, Alex.”

“I missed you, too, Lucy.”

Lucy shifted back for a moment before pulling Alex into a hug. Alex breathed deep. Something inside her slipped back into place.

Lucy’s hands trailed along Alex’s neck as she pulled back. She paused, fingers catching the necklace chain. Slowly, slowly, she pulled the Megan David out from under Alex’s shirt and cradled it in her hands.

“You got it.”

Alex nodded, wrapping her hands around Lucy’s. “Your mom gave it to me that birthday. I haven’t taken it off since.”

She pretended to not notice the tears running down Lucy’s face.

“Can I tell you something?” Lucy asked.

“Of course.”

“I think I’m bi.”

Alex grinned. She pulled Lucy into another hug.

* * *

Sparks jumped into the air as Alex threw another log onto the bonfire, mingling with the stars before burning out.

Alex leaned back, leaned into Maggie's arms.

Last night of the summer. They were going to be seniors the next day.

Lucy sat a few feet away, back to them as she stared at the water. The firelight shone on her from the side, reds and oranges painting her side, curling in her hair.

Maggie’s hand slipped under Alex's tank top, fingers tracing patterns across her skin.

“How long did you have a crush on her?” Maggie murmured, voice almost lost to the crashing waves, the roaring fire, the laughter of their friends a few feet away.

Alex brushed her thumb back and forth across Maggie's thumb.

“My entire life, I think,” she softly admitted.

Maggie pressed a kiss to her neck. “You still do.”

“Maggie?”

“I don’t blame you,” Maggie laughed. “She’s cute, funny, smart. I might have a small crush on her too.”

“You’re okay with it?”

“With you having a crush? I don’t get to control your feelings, Alex.” Maggie nipped at her ear. “Just run things by me if you ever want to act on them.”

Alex turned, ready to ask what Maggie meant by that, but was met with a face full of water.

She was on her feet in a moment, chasing after Vasquez.

* * *

“Alright, Alex, truth or dare?”

Alex let her head fall back, hitting the floor of Vasquez’s parent’s basement. Her brain buzzed with warmth from alcohol, from contentedness, from Maggie pressed against one side and Lucy on the other. “Why are we playing this game?”

Lucy slapped her stomach. “Because we’re bored high schoolers, catch up, Danvers.”

Alex groaned. “Fine, truth.”

“Who was your first kiss?” Winn asked.

Alex shrugged, gesturing wildly with her hand. “Lucy.”

She pushed herself up onto her elbows at the silence that followed. Everyone was staring at her and Lucy.

“What?”

“You two kissed?” Kara asked.

“We were five,” Lucy explained. “There was a wedding, we thought kissing was a thing best friends did.”

“That’s adorable,” Maggie laughed.

Alex looked at her, thinking back to that day. “You happen to be a flower girl at your aunt’s wedding?”

“Yeah. Only time I’d been to Midvale before moving here. Why?”

Alex laughed. She turned to Lucy. “Ay, Luce, Maggie was that girl we saw.”

“You were there?” Maggie asked.

“We were hiding in the bushes, that’s where the kiss happened,” Alex said.

“Huh.”

Alex reached for her beer bottle, started picking at the label again. The star on the logo ripped in half. She finished the rest of the beer and fell back again.

She dozed of somewhere between Kara daring someone to order a pizza, again, and Maggie asking James what kind of porn he watched.

When she woke, the basement was dark, the only noise soft murmurings from the corner.

Alex rolled over, squinting through the dark to see Maggie and Lucy sitting on the bottom stair, whispering. She pushed herself up, slowly making her way towards them. She was ready to sit on the side, next to Maggie, but they made room for her between them as she approached.

“Interesting conversation?” she asked, voice low.

“Maybe,” Maggie said.

“About anyone I know?” Alex pressed.

“Possibly,” Lucy said.

“You’re both rude.”

They both laughed.

“We’ll talk about it when you’re actually awake and none of us have had alcohol,” Maggie said, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

Alex nodded. “Okay. Great plan. Let’s go back to sleep.”

They let her take their hands and lead them back to where she had woken.

She fell back to sleep with Maggie curled around her back and Lucy curled up in her arms.

* * *

Alex shifted from foot to foot. Maggie squeezed her hand once before dropping it as the door opened.

“Girls?”

“Hey, Mrs. Lane. Is Lucy home?” Alex asked.

She was. They knew she was, but had decided it better to act like it was an unplanned hang out, just friends.

Lucy hadn’t heard anything from her father since she had returned to Midvale, but the fear still clung to her that he’d show up one day and take her again.

“Hey, guys,” Lucy said before her mom could answer.

“We’re gunna go see _Ella Enchanted_ , if you want to join,” Alex said.

“Yeah, sure, if that’s cool, mom?”

Lucy’s grin grew tight, as if she was waiting for the rejection.

“Of course, sweetie, just be home by curfew?”

“I will.”

They crammed into the front bench seat of Alex’s jeep, Maggie in the middle.

“Are we really going to see _Ella Enchanted_?” Lucy asked as they drove off.

“We can, or we can see one of the other movies,” Maggie replied. “Just figured that’d be the best one to tell parents.”

Lucy laughed. She pulled a silver Sharpie out of her pocket, started drawing stars on Alex’s glove box, adding to the gold and silver and blue ones already there.

“We’ll even let you choose,” Alex said. “And stop vandalizing my car.”

“Take us somewhere private and I’ll vandalize you instead.”

Alex choked. Maggie laughed, pressed a kiss to Lucy’s cheek.

“Not while she’s driving babe.”

* * *

Alex closed her eyes as she stepped into the sand.

It was soft beneath her bare feet, her shoes hanging from her fingers.

“You’re going to get sand all over that dress.”

She opened her eyes to Lucy.

Lucy, already a few feet onto the beach. Lucy, in a short dress that looked like the night sky as much beneath the night sky, as it had on the dance floor.

Alex looked down at her own dress, long and red and probably already full of sandy hems. She shrugged.

An arm slid around Alex’s waist.

Maggie. In a suit, pants cuffed up to her calves.

Maggie, the only one of them out to the school until that night, when Alex had shown up as the date she had fought the faculty to be allowed to bring.

Or, one of her dates, really, but Lucy wasn’t ready for that, had, in appearances, gone with James and Vasquez as a friend group.

By the morning, the entire town was going to know that Alex was gay.

In the morning, she was going to wake up in her girlfriends arms, and have a minor panic attack.

But, that night, she walked along the beach, toes in the sand, stars in the sky, a girlfriend on each side.


	10. Rainbow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of how Maggie got Ellie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ellie first showed up in the Pets fic
> 
> TW for dead puppies and animal abuse, specifically, the abandonment of puppies and leaving them to die. You can skip to the last scene if you don’t want to read it. The last scene was my original idea, then my brain was, give the backstory.

Maggie pulled the edge of her hood down. Rain water dripped from the soaked fabric, falling to her face. She still had a mile until she got to her aunt’s house and all she could hope was that her books and homework weren’t completely destroyed in her backpack.

She stepped to the side, pressing against the side of a building, under an awning. She wiped water off of her face, squinted up at the black mass of clouds.

The crash of thunder made her flinch back.

She scanned the streets, stomach turning at the group of boys loitering outside the drug store. They hadn’t noticed her yet, but they would if she got closer.

She glanced down the alley she was by. She could cut through the alley and bypass them completely behind the buildings. She’s have to climb the fence just past the post office, but it would hardly be the first time.

The alley was dark. She stepped in a puddle a few feet in, soaking the last bit of her sock that wasn’t already.

A flash of lightning. The crash of thunder.

A soft cry just barely audible under the rain.

Maggie froze. She looked around.

To the side, a plastic tub, sitting open under a gutter runoff, moving slightly.

The puddle Maggie kneeled in was cold, but she barely noticed with what she saw.

Three puppies. Two still, snouts under the water. The third, clawing at the side of the container.

It paused when it saw Maggie, then started yapping, jumping up.

Maggie pulled it out, set it in the crook of her elbow. She looked down at the other two, took a deep breath, and reached in.

She, carefully, pulled one, then both of them out, setting them on the ground next to the container.

Tears welled up as she stared at them.

Lightning flashed, illuminating them for a moment.

Maggie choked back a sob. She brushed a finger across their heads.

“I’m sorry.”

The thunder crashed.

The puppy in her arms squirmed.

Maggie closed her eyes and stood.

She had to get the surviving one home.

It squirmed.

Maggie dropped her bag to the ground, pulled her jacket off, leaving her in just her hoodie. She wrapped the puppy in the jacket, held it to her chest, pulled her backpack on, and started running.

Puddled splashed beneath her feet. Her hoodie soaked within minutes. She vaulted over the fence, hand slipping on the wet metal, but landed on her feet on the other side.

The mile passed within minutes. She slammed through the door, a cry of surprise coming from her aunt.

“Maggie? What?”

“It’s going to die, Tía,” Maggie panted.

Her aunt stared at her with wide eyes. “What? Maggie, you’re shaking.”

Maggie’s bag fell to the ground with a thump. She stepped forward, opening her jacket.

“It’s gunna die.”

“Maggie, is that a dog?”

“It was in a box, in the alley. The others were already...already dead and this on is…” She cut off, tears streaming down her face, chest too tight to speak.

“Maggie, Maggie, cálmate. Let me see it.”

As soon as the puppy was no longer in her arms, Maggie hugged herself, fingers digging into her sides.

“It’s still alive,” her aunt said. “We’ll take it to the vet, alright?”

Maggie nodded.

Her aunt wiped some hair out of her face. “Let’s go, mija.”

The drive was a blur. Maggie held the puppy in her lap, fingers gently brushing over its head.

Then they were in the vet’s office, and the puppy was taken from her, and Maggie just curled up on one of the waiting room chairs.

* * *

Maggie sighed. She leaned back in her desk chair, pushing it onto its back legs, her own feet braced against her desk. The TV played an old VHS in the corner. She threw the tennis ball against the wall, caught it when it bounced back, threw it again and again and again.

A knock at her bedroom door stopped her from throwing it again after catching it. The chair legs hit the ground with a clack.

“Yeah?”

The door opened, her aunt leaned in the doorway.

“First, I’ve told you to not do that.”

“Sorry.”

“Second, I’ve got something for you.”

Maggie’s brow furrowed, then her eyes went wide at a small bark sounded.

“Is that..?”

Her aunt grinned, then crouched down. When she stood up again, a puppy was squirming in her arms.

Maggie was across the room in seconds. She raised her hand to scratch behind its ears, but it nuzzled her hand instead.

“It lived?”

“She lived. The vet said she should grow up strong, no negative impacts from that night.”

Maggie grinned.

“And, she’s yours.”

Maggie froze.

“What?”

Her aunt pushed the puppy into Maggie’s arms.

“She’s yours.”

The puppy pawed at Maggie’s chest, licked her chin.

“But your responsible for her, alright? Training her, taking her for walks, all of that.”

Maggie nodded. “I’ll do it all. Promise.”

“Now you just need to name her.”

Maggie glanced around the room, eyes landing on the sick triceratops on the TV screen.

“Ellie. Her name is Ellie.”

* * *

The door squeaked as Maggie opened it.

Barking and claws clicking against the floor sounded, and a moment later, Ellie was jumping at her feet.

Maggie crouched, hand instantly going to scratch behind Ellie’s ears.

“Hey, girl,” she said. “You miss me?”

Ellie licked at her hand.

“I’m sorry I was gone all day, but I got you something.”

Ellie yapped happily.

“You spoil that dog.”

Maggie rolled her eyes, looked up at her aunt.

“She deserves to be spoiled,” Maggie argued. She scrunched up her face.

Ellie yipped, hopping up so her front paws were on Maggie’s knees. She licked at Maggie’s chin.

Her aunt sighed, walking to the kitchen. “At least she makes you happy.”

Maggie rolled her eyes again.

She wasn’t happy, but this stupid dog helped her smile.

She reached into her back pocket, pulling out the rainbow collar. She held it out towards Ellie, letting her sniff it.

“It’s got your tags on it and everything,” she said. “Alright. Ellie, sit.”

The puppy did as she was told, tail thumping against the floor.

“Good girl.”

Maggie clipped the collar around Ellie’s neck, rainbow against tan, tags hanging under her head. She stood, lifting Ellie with her.

“Come on, girl.”


	11. Road Trip? - Director Sanvers?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is it still a road trip if there are no roads?

Neon lights.

Soft vibrations.

Gentle music.

_ What if I lost my direction _ _   
_ _ What if I lost a sense of time _

Lucy rubbed the sleep from her eyes, pushed herself up so she was sitting in the middle of the bench seat, leaning forward between the front seats.

“What are we listening to?”

_ What if I nursed this infection _ _   
_ _ Maybe the worst is behind _

She leaned her head on the side of the passenger seat, squinted past neon lights of the front console, to the neon lights outside.

“Falling for the First Time by the Barenaked Ladies” Maggie replied.

“What?”

“Old band, from the 1900s.”

Lucy blinked, not for the first time questioning exactly whose car she had gotten into on that com-pit. “You listen to weird music.”

Alex and Maggie glanced at each other. Alex reached forward, hitting a button on the console.

Soft piano filled the cab before a gentle voice.

_ If you ever plan to motor west _ _   
_ _ Just take my way it’s the highway that’s the best _

“What is this?”

“Route 66 by Nat King Cole, 1946.”

Lucy looked between them.

“You two are so weird. Who still listens to music that old?”

“Just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s bad.”

Lucy’s response faltered as they turned around the final asteroid of The Desert Gate and National City opened up before them.

In contrast to the limited range neon lights on The Gate, National City was muted.

Logically, Lucy understood why, light blocks to not overload the light sensors on incoming ships were mandatory on all structures larger than an asteroid, but the effect of it stole Lucy’s breath.

The massive structure, an amalgamation of ships and ports and stations anchored together, was haloed by the neon, shrouded in shadows at parts, steam and gases escaping out of ports threw the light there was into blurs and rainbows.

Maggie leaned forward, tapping the console to ring a frequency.

A moment later, a face appeared on the interface, red hair mussed, rubbing her eyes.

_ “Mags?” _

“Hey, Kate, sorry, but I need help.”

_ “The fuck did you do now?” _

“Just get us past the check in and I’ll explain everything.”

Kate sighed.  _ “You owe me for this one, Maggie.” _

“I’ll pay up. I always do.”

_ “Yeah, yeah, yeah, ask Alex if she wants to join this time.”  _ She looked down, at something off screen. _ “Dock BW-02.” _

“Be there in forty,” Alex said, punching the destination into the nav. “I’d love to join. Sorry I missed out last time.”

Kate laughed.  _ “Vas’ll meet you down there, get you the codes, then we’ll meet up at M’gann’s.” _

“Cool.”

Kate vanished from the screen.

“So,” Lucy slowly drawled. “You two aren’t wanted or anything, are you?”

The awkward silence from the front seat did nothing to sooth her worries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What exactly is this au? Are Alex and Maggie wanted? What do they want in this sci-fi version of National City? Why did Lucy get in their car? Why exactly do they listen to music over a century old?
> 
> Had a bad day or two, hopefully get caught up soon on these prompts. Big thank you for all the comments.


	12. Shopping - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maggie entrusted them with a list.

Alex checked next to the cursive  _oatmeal_ on the paper. She covered her mouth as she yawned, eyes flicking down the rest of Maggie’s list.

Halfway through.

She pushed the cart further down the aisle, to the cold cereal. She grabbed a box of cinnamon toast crunch, ignoring the voice in the back of her head of  _really Danvers? Are you a child?_  As she threw it in the cart.

Boxes of Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios quickly followed.

_Cereal_  was checked off. That was it for breakfast until she made her way to the dairy and freezer sections.

She glanced up and down the aisle. It was empty save for the employee at the end stocking the shelf.

No Lucy.

Which, probably wasn’t good.

Lucy had vanished almost as soon as they had gotten to the store. Alex had gotten a brief glimpse of her at the end of the bread aisle about ten minutes back. She would probably reappear with a cart full of stuff that would make Maggie give them that look that said she was disappointed, but not surprised.

Alex yawned again. That was future Alex’s problem. In the moment, next aisle.

Chips.

Still no Lucy.

Alex just grabbed the ones Maggie asked for, counting on Lucy having grabbed the rest.

Cookie and crackers aisle.

No Lucy.

She wasn’t down the candy aisle either.

Alex made her way to the freezer section. A few frozen pizzas, fries, ice cream…

“We do not need cake.”

Lucy made that face where she was pouting while trying to not be obviously pointing.

“No.”

“It’s tiramisu,” Lucy pushed.

Alex raised an eyebrow, then rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

Lucy grinned. She put the cake in Alex’s cart, then reached up and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Alex looked down at Maggie’s list.

“We just need to finish this section then we’re…”

Lucy was gone again.

Alex sighed.

Great.


	13. Anniversary - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ft. trans!Maggie

**** The smell hit them as soon as they opened the apartment door. Alex and Lucy glanced at each other as they made their way to the kitchen.

Maggie was washing dishes, singing along with the music playing.

They recognized the playlist instantly. Maggie’s Trans Playlist.

She had been building it for years, adding every trans artist she heard about to it for years, regardless of if she actually liked the music or not. They hadn’t heard her listen to it without occasion.

Lucy leaned back against the counter, dipping a finger into the bowl of dulce de leche on the counter. She sucked it off of her finger, watching Alex step up behind Maggie, slipping her arms around her waist, resting her chin on Maggie’s shoulder.

“Special occasion?” she asked.

Maggie hummed, leaned back into her. “You could say that.”

Lucy dipped her finger in the bowl again. She stepped across the kitchen and held the finger out for Alex, who took the finger in her mouth. Lucy leaned her hip against the counter next to the sink, watching both of them.

Maggie bit her bottom lip as Alex moaned. She scrubbed the pot in her hands harder than necessary.

“What’s in the oven?” Lucy asked, pulling her hand back.

“Enchiladas,” Maggie answered, putting the pot on the drying rack.

Alex hummed, pressed a kiss to the side of Maggie’s neck. “They smell great.”

“What’s the occasion?” Lucy asked.

Maggie shrugged. “Anniversary.”

Lucy and Alex glanced at each other. It was definitely not anything related to their relationship.

“What anniversary?” Alex asked, voice soft, thumbs rubbing Maggie’s hips.

“Hormones.”

Lucy grinned. “How many years now?”

“Nineteen.”

Alex pressed a kiss to Maggie’s cheek. “Congrats, babe.”

Maggie smiled, but they could make out the old grief on the edges. “I wouldn’t let my tia celebrate my first birthday with her. It was too soon.” She shrugged.

Alex squeezed her lightly.

There hadn’t just been a month between Maggie getting kicked out and her next birthday, but in a better family, a more accepting family, she might have had a quinceanera that birthday.

“She eventually figured out the day I took my first dose of blockers, and turned it into another mini birthday for me.” She laughed. “Enchiladas and empanadas every year. Kind of a, E until I could really take E, type thing, in her words.”

Alex kissed her cheek again.

Lucy pressed forward, kissing her in the same spot. “Happy anniversary, babe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want more of my trans!Maggie hc, check out the (truthfully small) tag on my tumblr [here](http://nerdsbianhokie.tumblr.com/tagged/trans!maggie)


	14. Best Friend - pre-Directorship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy realizes something

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by the song Bestie by Sizzy Rocket

Lucy raised an eyebrow as she opened her door.

Alex was leaning against the rail on the side of the stairs, head rolling as she stared up at the sky. Rain dripped down her bare shoulders. Her hair was plastered to the side of her face.

“Damion dumped me.”

Her voice was steady but almost lost to the rain.

Lucy reached out, wrapping her fingers around Alex’s wrist, and pulled her inside.

“He didn’t deserve you,” she said, dragging Alex to her room.

Alex scoffed. “You say that about every guy I date.”

“None of them deserved you.”

She opened the top drawer of her dresser, only to have Alex press against her back and close it.

“Come out with me,” she said, breath hitting Lucy’s neck. “I wanna get drunk and high and forget him.”

“I have an exam tomorrow.”

Alex hummed. She started to grind against Lucy’s ass.

Lucy closed her eyes, took a deep breath.

“You’re already high,” she said.

Alex hummed. “I am. Stopped by Brian’s on the way here.”

Lucy sighed. “Alex.”

“I wanna party.” She dropped her hands to Lucy’s hips, holding her close as she continued to grind.

Lucy steeled herself. She turned.

Alex was grinning down at her, dark eyes wide, rain dripping from her hair. She didn’t stop moving, hips still going. Her eyes dropped, looking down at their bodies. She had a lip between her teeth as she looked back up.

“Come out with me.”

Lucy swallowed. She settled her own hands on Alex’s hips, holding them still.

Alex whine, pouted.

“Tomorrow,” Lucy said. “If you still want to go out, still want to party, we’ll go. Okay? Tonight, just stay here. We’ll watch movies and eat all the crap you want.”

Alex deflated, head sinking to lean on Lucy’s shoulder.

Lucy combed her fingers through wet hair. “I’ll even let you chose the movies.”

“Round Planet?”

“Not a movie, but sure.”

“Thanks, Luce.”

“Of course. You want dry clothes now?”

“Please.”

Alex took a deep breath, then pushed off of Lucy. She stumbled away, turning as she reached under her arm to pull on the zipper of her dress. Lucy watched for a moment, before turning around.

She’d seen Alex naked before, ever since the baths they shared as little kids, sleepovers and camping trips and rooming together for three years in college. But, it felt different this time.

Alex was high and distressed and Lucy’s body hummed from the contact.

And, really, seeing Alex in that tiny red dress was bad enough, but watching her take it off?

Lucy froze.

No.

No.

She couldn’t.

She didn’t.

But, she did.

She wanted to fuck Alex.

Well, she wanted to date Alex, treat her right, better than any of her loser boyfriends ever did. In the moment, however, the feel of Alex moving against her was seared in her head and burned against her skin.

She wanted to fuck Alex.

Lucy forced herself to focus on pulling clothes out of her dresser. Sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt.

She turned.

Alex was naked, head tilted as she stared at Lucy’s calendar.

Shoulders. Back. Ass.

The scar on her side from when she had tried to climb the cliffs at Swan Beach. The minimalist tattoo of a surfboard in the sand on a beach on her shoulder. The small star and flower on her right ass cheek that matched Lucy’s.

Alex turned.

Lucy did her best to keep her eyes on Alex’s face as she held the clothes out. She left the room as soon as Alex took them. She made her way to the living room, closing the episode of iZombie she had been watching, and pulled up Round Planet instead.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t known that her best friend was attractive. She had known that for years.

She walked to the kitchen, gathering the snacks Alex usually went for when she got the munchies. She stacked them in her arms and made her way back to the couch.

And, it wasn’t that she hadn’t known that she was, on some level, attracted to Alex.

She set the food on the table.

But the need to push her onto the bed and kiss her senseless before moving onto other things? That was new.

Arms slipped around her waist, Alex nuzzled into her neck.

“You’re the best, Lucy.”

Lucy chuckled. “Don’t forget that.”

“Never.”


	15. Truth - Directorship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just another Alex/Lucy grad school thing for whatever reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seem to have a thing for writing Alex and Lucy as grad students? I dunno.

Alex squinted her eyes at the open door down the hall. If she was right, that was her room, which meant her roommate was already there.

And had gotten first choice of bedroom.

Alex did her best to not glare at Kara.

Because, really, if Kara had actually gotten ready at any sort of speed, they would have gotten to campus over an hour ago.

Or, if she hasn't insisted the stop every hour to get food.

Alex flexed her fingers around the handle of her crutch.

She hadn't been able to get a place off campus like she had wanted, her mother insisting it would be easier on her.

_ It has no commute, Alexandra. _

_ You can get accommodations, Alexandra. _

_ But your leg, Alexandra. _

She had stayed on campus through her time at undergrad, and had been hoping grad school would be different.

At least the grad students got apartment style dorms.

She made it down the hallway, and, sure enough, that was her dorm with the door open and a gruff man carrying a box stopping.

He glanced down, eyed her crutch, her leg, the space where her other leg would be.

Alex's fingers flexed again.

The looks and stares and pointing were hardly new to her anymore, but hardly made her feel any better than the first time.

“You the roommate?” he asked.

Alex nodded, sharp and quick.

He nodded back, huffed, then turned and walked into the dorm.

“Lucy,” he called. “Your roommate is here.”

Alex went to follow him inside, but her mother held her back long enough to go first. Alex rolled her eyes, but let her go.

She went to look around the apartment, but her attention was drawn by the woman walking out of the room by the kitchen.

Short, with short hair and pale eyes.

And gorgeous.

Great.

“Alex?” she asked.

“You must be Lucy.”

A nod.

Lucy looked her up and down, then offered her left hand. Alex took it, slightly surprised. Most people didn’t think about her using her right hand for her crutch.

“I hope it’s alright that I took this room,” Lucy said.

Alex nodded. “It’s fine.”

Lucy smiled.

Great.

This was going to be great.

Two minutes in and she already had a crush on her roommate.

The move went quickly, Kara able to lift her heavier stuff with ease, her mother forcing Alex to stay in the room and direct traffic, the constant looks from Lucy’s father. She couldn’t help but notice Lucy’s walk, the slightly familiar gait to it.

Finally, finally, their families left, leaving Alex and Lucy to their room.

Alex collapsed back onto the couch with a groan.

“You really can have the other room,” Lucy said. “If it’d be easier for you.”

Alex fought the urge to bristle and get defensive. “Nah, I prefer being closer to the bathroom.” She grabbed the Xbox controller. “You mind if I watch something on Netflix?”

“Go ahead,” Lucy said, sitting next to her. “You mind if I take my leg off?”

Alex paused, the gait suddenly making sense. “Go ahead.”

She tried to keep her focus on the screen, but couldn’t help but watch out of the corner of her eye as Lucy pulled her pant leg up, revealing a prosthetic.

“When they said I would be roomed with someone like me,” Lucy said as she started to remove the leg. “I honestly didn’t think this is what they were talking about.”

Alex looked at her. “What did you think?”

Lucy shrugged. She set the leg to the side. “Military, I guess.”

“Military?”

Lucy nodded. “Army.”

“What’s a soldier doing at Stanford?”

“Law degree. I was going to wait another tour, but when the IED blew shrapnel into my leg, my plans got shifted a bit.”

Alex watched her back straighten, watched the tension pull her shoulders back, daring Alex to comment.

“Great,” Alex drawled. “I'm rooming with a lawyer.”

Lucy laughed, the tension bleeding from her.

“And who am I rooming with?”

“Bio-engineer.’

“Oh, an engineer, great.”

Alex laughed.

“Any requests?” she asked, gesturing to the TV.

“You watch A Series of Unfortunate Events? I haven't seen the second season yet.”

Alex nodded and pulled the show up.

* * *

The common area was packed, full of other students who almost definitely wanted to be anywhere else but the dorm welcome session the night before classes started.

Lucy certainly did.

She also wanted to not be standing. There were no empty chairs left, and she refused to go ask for one, disability or not.

Especially with Alex standing right next to her.

Lucy glared down another lingering look towards Alex.

“You don't have to do that,” Alex said.

Lucy glanced at her. “Sorry. I just know how much I hate when it happens to me.”

Alex shrugged. “I don't want to say you get used to it, but you learn to ignore most of it.”

“So it's...been a while?”

Alex laughed. “Long enough.”

Loud, singular clapping pulled their attention.

“Alright,” a cheery woman said, stepping up onto a chair. “Welcome, everyone, to Lyman Hall.”

A few minutes later, Cydney had separated them all into groups of six.

Lucy eyed the four she and Alex had been grouped with.

Three more women, and a single man.

“We're going to start off with 'two truths and a lie’,” Cydney said, still standing on her chair.

Lucy rolled her eyes.

Did they really have to do the ice breakers?

She listened absently as the others went through their lists, guessing when it was her turn. Eventually it was her turn.

Two truths.

One lie.

“I’m a lieutenant in the Army.”

True.

“I’ve seen three plays on Broadway.”

Lie.

“I’ve never read _Harry Potter_.”

True.

Lucy watched as what always happened happened.

The boy looked her up and down, declared the Army statement the lie. The girls focused on the Harry Potter fact.

Then, Alex.

The four others looked to Alex, waiting for her input. She shrugged.

“Broadway,” she said. “That's the lie.”

The boy argued, but Lucy shook her head.

“She's right. Never been to Broadway. Your turn, Alex.”

Alex screwed her mouth to the side for a moment.

“Uh, I can speak four languages, I'm a professional surfer, and I was born without my leg.”

The boy - and, really, Lucy should know his name, that was the entire point of these things, but she couldn't be bothered to remember - scoffed.

“The surfer thing is the lie,” he announced.

“I don’t know,” one of the girls cut in. “You do look familiar.”

Lucy squinted at Alex.

She had heard Alex talking to her sister in a language Lucy couldn’t even begin to understand. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine her speaking another two.

She had also noticed some surfing stuff in the boxes being moved to Alex’s room.

But, the comments Alex had made about her leg, she could have possibly been born without it.

“No way,” the boy continued. “I know surfers, and she isn’t one.”

One of the girls rolled her eyes. She turned to Lucy. “What do you think?”

Lucy regarded Alex. It could be any of them, really.

Before she could say anything, however, an alarm sounded.

Cydney stepped up to her chair again. “Just the fire alarms. Exits are right over there.”

She pointed towards the exit the crowd was already moving through.

Lucy and Alex fell to the back of the crowd, sticking next to each other. They made their way outside, finding a space by a tree.

“Do I get to know which was the lie?” Lucy asked.

Alex looked at her, eyes narrowed slightly. She smirked.

“Nope.”

* * *

Alex looked up at Lucy’s groan.

Shoulders slouched, hand buried in her hair, even from behind, Alex could see the stress.

She looked back to her textbook, eyed her problems, then closed her book. She grabbed her crutch and made her way to the TV stand..

“If you could see one Broadway show, what would it be?”

Lucy looked up.

“What?”

“One Broadway show.”

Lucy blinked. “Um.” She looked away, around the apartment. “Um, _Legally Blonde_?”

Alex laughed. “You’re such a lawyer.”

She grabbed a USB from the drawer under the TV and plugged it into the Xbox.

“What are you doing?”

Alex grinned over at Lucy before grabbing the controller and sitting on the couch next to Lucy.

“We’re taking a break.”

“You? You’re taking a break?”

“I take breaks.”

“I have not once seen you take a break in the month we’ve been here.”

“So, clearly, I’m due for one. And you are, too.”

Lucy rolled her eyes, but sat back. She watched as Alex scrolled through the USB storage.

“Wait, are these..?”

“Broadway plays.”

“Illegally downloaded?”

Alex waved her off.

“Any particular reason you have a USB of illegal Broadway plays?”

“My sister watches them.”

“But you have it.”

“That’s irrelevant.”

Lucy chuckled.

Alex pulled up _Legally Blonde_.

“We’re watching _Into the Woods_ next, though,” she said.

Lucy leaned over, pressing shoulder against Alex.

“I think I can live with that.”

Lucy leaned further and further into her as the play went. Right around ‘Ireland’, Alex slid her arm around Lucy’s shoulder.

Her heart pounded in her ears. She wiped her other hand on her pant leg.

She could feel Lucy, could smell her, could feel her crush going wild in her head. The need to speak rose, bubbled in her throat..

“The languages were true.” There, safe topic.

“Hmm?”

“I speak four languages.”

“Yeah? Which ones?”

“English, Hebrew, Russian, and German.”

And Kryptonian, but that would be a little harder to explain.

“Can you say something?”

Alex blinked. “Say what?”

Lucy shrugged. “Anything.”

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

“Vi krasivaya.”

_ You are beautiful. _

“Ata ya'fe mi'bifnim afilu yoter me'asher mi'ba'khutz.”

_ You’re even more beautiful on the inside. _

“Ich bin froh dich getroffen zu haben.”

_ I’m glad I met you. _

* * *

“Mother fucker!”

Lucy jumped at the crash. She turned from the microwave and her popcorn.

Alex was in her doorway, leaning heavily on the jam, crutch on the floor.

Lucy walked towards her, carefully bending to pick up the crutch.

“You okay?”

Alex forced a nod, eyes screwed shut, sweat gathering on her brow.

“Alex?”

“Phantom pain.”

Lucy nodded. Her phantom pain had, thankfully, only lingered for a few months, but she remembered how it had felt.

“Couch?”

Alex nodded.

Lucy pulled Alex’s arm around her shoulders and helped her across the room. She laid Alex down.

“Do you need anything?”

Alex shook her head. Her fingers flexed through the air past the scarred skin of her leg end. “It’ll stop soon.”

The microwave beeping pulled Lucy’s attention.

“I’ll be right back,” she said.

She grabbed the popcorn and two drinks, setting it all on the table in front of the couch before sitting on the edge.

Alex stared at the ceiling.

“I had a bad ankle, before,” she said. “Seven years and I still feel it sometimes.”

“Is there anything that helps?”

“Sometimes taking medicine helps, but not always. I just need to wait for it to pass.”

Lucy watched her for a moment.

“Alright, scootch.”

“What?”

Lucy flung her hand around for a moment. She grabbed the Xbox controller and stood.

“We’re gunna watch the next musical.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. She pushed herself up, tried to sit upright, but was stopped by Lucy’s hand on her shoulder. Lucy sat, then urged Alex to lay down, rolling onto her side with her head in Lucy’s lap.

Lucy glanced over at the whiteboard on the wall. They had made the list the day after watching Legally Blonde; all of the musicals Alex had, in the order they were going to watch them.

_ Cats. _

Well, alright then.

Alex relaxed. Lucy ran her fingers through Alex’s hair.

She really should tell Alex that, while not fluent, she understood Russian, that she knew Alex had called her beautiful, that she understood all the compliments Alex had hidden behind the language to give.

But, but…

She didn’t want to scare Alex off, didn’t want to risk this middle ground they had found of easy touches and lingering looks.

And the musicals.

Cuddling together for a break from their studies, one of them often breaking the silence at one point with something on her mind, walls lowered through the show.

“It was a shark,” Alex said, eyes still on the screen. “I was on the water one night, laying on my board, staring at the sky, and next thing I knew, I was pulled under.”

Lucy squeezed Alex’s shoulder lightly.

“I don’t remember getting myself to the beach, or Kara carrying me to the house, or the ambulance or anything. It’s just a blur of pain then I was awake in the hospital.” She took a deep breath. “And my leg was gone.”

She fell silent for a song.

“They said the shark only actually got from just above the knee, but the damage to the rest of the leg was too much to save it.”

The end of Lucy’s leg tingled. She could remember the doctors debating how high to amputate, how much leg they could leave her with.

“I haven’t been in the water since.” Alex sighed. “I want to. I miss it. But, my mom. She freaks out any time I even hint it.”

Lucy tucked some of Alex’s hair behind her ear.

“So, what I’m hearing,” she slowly said. “Is that the born without a leg was the lie, and you were a professional surfer.”

Alex paused. She turned so she was lying on her back, dark eyes blinking up at Lucy.

“You’re still on that?”

Lucy shrugged, hand moving the rest on Alex’s stomach. “You know, your mom isn’t here, and it takes less than an hour to drive to the beach.”

Alex stared for a moment, then a grin slowly pulled at her lips.

“Yeah?”

“Only if you want, of course.”

“Ya khochu uvidet' tebya v bikini.”

_ I want to see you in a bikini. _

Oh, Lucy could not let that one slide.

“Snachala ty.”

_ You first. _

Alex froze, eyes wide, grin fading.

“You speak Russian.”

“A little.”

She let Alex flounder for a moment, then laughed.

“It’s cute, the way you keep complimenting me in other languages.”

“I...um…”

“You do know you can use English for them, if you want.”

Alex blinked, mouth open slightly. “Okay.”

She turned back to her side, pretending to watch the musical.

Lucy twirled a lock of Alex’s hair around her finger. Her stomach twisted.

Why had she done that? Everything was going to change. She had just fucked up so bad.

“I think you’re beautiful,” Alex softly said.

Lucy sucked in a breath, tension releasing a bit.

“Yy tozhe krasivyy.”

_ You’re beautiful too. _


	16. Parade - Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pride parades through Maggie's life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for mild homophobia

Commercial.

A hospital show.

That drama her mom liked.

Maggie held the remote with one hand as she pressed the channel button with the other. Each channel played for a few seconds before she moved on.

She had been watching Nickelodeon, but Spongebob came on, and her mom hated Spongebob and said Maggie couldn’t watch it.

Commercial.

Old timey men shooting guns.

Commercial.

Commercial.

Rainbows.

Maggie paused, head tilted.

It was the news. People were walking down a street holding rainbows and signs.

“Turn that off.”

Maggie looked up at her dad as he walked into the living room.

“What are they doing?” she asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Turn it off.”

Maggie blinked. She turned back to the TV.

The rainbows. The signs.

Two women kissed.

The remote was snatched from her hand and the TV was turned off.

That Sunday, while the preacher ranted about the sin of homosexuality, Maggie couldn’t stop thinking about the kissing women.

* * *

Kansas City was the biggest city Maggie had ever seen. The buildings were taller than the ones in Lincoln and the streets busier.

And a block over, Maggie could make out the crowds for the parade that was going to start soon.

Between the buildings, she soaked up rainbows and posters and clasped hands. She took in as much as she could while ignoring her father’s comments.

Her father stopped in front of a building. “Stay out here,” he said. “I’ll be right out.”

Maggie stared up the building he walked into, then up and down the street.

She walked to the corner of the building, glancing down the alley.

She watched, soaking it all in. The colors, the people, the pride.

Loud revving made its way up the block. Motorcycles and banners and flags drove past. Maggie stared at the topless women just barely visible through the crowd on the sidewalk.

“You okay, kid?”

She turned, looked up at the woman next to her.

Blue hair, shaved on the side, a rainbow painted on her cheek.

Maggie nodded, eyes wide.

“You alone out here?” the woman asked.

Maggie shook her head. She looked back at the building. “My dad’s inside.”

“He left you out here?”

Maggie shrugged. She looked down the alley, to the parade.

“What’s it like?” she asked.

“Belonging.” The woman stepped towards the street, turning to look back at Maggie. “Want to come check it out?”

Maggie took a step forward, then froze. She looked at the building.

“My dad. If...If he found out…”

The woman nodded. She glanced at the parade, then stepped towards Maggie, raising a hand to one of the buttons on her jacket. She took it off, then handed it to Maggie.

Maggie stared at it. Pink background with the words ‘I’m one’ in white lettering.

“Someone gave this to me my first Pride,” she said. “Keep it safe?”

Maggie nodded, sticking it into her pocket.

“Margarita!”

Maggie flinched, stumbling as a hand on her shoulder pulled her back.

“You stay away from my daughter,” her father said, stepping between Maggie and the woman. “She doesn’t need your type doing anything to her.”

The woman’s face turned sad. “Just asking if she knew where the closest coffee shop is, sir.”

“I bet that’s what you were asking.”

Her face went hard. “Have a good day, sir.”

She turned and walked towards the parade.

Maggie squeezed the button as the woman walked away, as her father turned to her.

“What did she say to you?”

“Just asked about coffee, like she said.”

Her father huffed. “You stay away from those people, understand?”

Maggie nodded, still squeezing the button.

* * *

Maggie refolded the t-shirt on the top of stack. She looked around.

The colors, the joy, the festivities.

The booth next to the youth center’s was for a bookstore and run by a couple of older lesbians who had been giving Maggie book suggestions the entire time. One of them, Ethel, had spent fifteen minutes showing off her buttons and pins after noticing Maggie’s. The other, Mary, had shared story after story between customers.

“Ay, Maggie, I’m here to take over.”

Maggie grinned at Derek, then laughed.

“You look like you took a glitter shower.”

He shrugged. “I basically did. Avoid the north side if you don’t want to be glittered every step.”

“Noted.”

“Now, go, enjoy your first pride.”

“If you hurry, you might catch the end of the parade,” Mary said.

Maggie grinned. “I’ll try. Thanks.”

She made her way through the park, weaving and dodging until she reached the street. There were too many people on the sidewalk for her to see past. She stepped up onto a planter, arm looped around the tree for balance.

Maggie grinned as the last few floats drove past.

* * *

“Are you sure what I’m wearing is fine?”

Maggie glanced at Alex, who was looking down at her outfit as they walked through down the sidewalk.

Skinny jeans, a black t-shirt with a rainbow design on the collar and chest pocket, and one of her leather jackets.

“I’m sure. There’s no dress code, you know.”

“Yeah, but I feel like I should be…”

“Gayer?”

“Yes.”

Maggie laughed. She squeezed Alex’s hand.

“You’re fine.”

“But…”

Alex gestured at the crowd around them.

Maggie got it. There were definitely people in much louder outfits. Short shorts, and nipple pasties, and one man wearing nothing but a rainbow flag around his waist.

“We all show our pride our own way,” Maggie said. “You aren’t exactly the crop top type. And, I’m not exactly wearing something much different than you.”

Almost identical, actually. Skinny jeans, white t-shirt, and the old leather jacket she had always worn to Pride. It had slowly accumulated patches and buttons and pins bought at booths. Her first button, given to her as a child, had long since been passed along to another kid who needed to know she had something to look forward to.

Alex let go of her hand, and slung her arm over Maggie’s shoulders instead. She pressed a kiss to the side of Maggie’s head.

“I love you,” Alex said.

Maggie grinned. “I love you, too.”

 


	17. Dance - Director Sanvers

**** Alex gently rubbed Sven’s nose as she fed him a carrot.

“Good boy,” she murmured, shifting over to rub his neck. He swung his head over, nuzzling  her shoulder.

Gertrude, laying on a pile of hay on a raised area of floor, lifted her head, looked to the entrance of the stable.

Alex looked over Sven’s neck to see Maggie and Lucy walking in.

Lucy was still in her leathers, sword and dagger at her hips. Maggie, however, was down to her trousers and linen shirt.

“Hiding?” Lucy asked. She stepped to the gate at Sven’s pen, arms folding on top of the wood.

“Why would I be hiding?” Alex asked.

“You aren’t at the celebration,” Maggie answered. She sat in the hay next to Gertrude, hand resting on the dog’s head that pushed its way onto her lap.

“Neither are you.”

“We came to find you,” Lucy said.

Alex hummed. She grabbed the brush from the nearby table and started to brush Sven’s neck.

Maggie tilted her head, leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure,” Alex admitted. “It feels weird.”

“I understand,” Lucy said. “We’ve been fighting this war for so long. To have it over? I’m still trying to wrap my head around that.”

“It doesn’t feel real,” Alex said.

“Like Lillian will attack any moment and take us off guard,” Maggie spoke up. “I feel it too, but she’s dead, Alex. Her and her damned army are dead.”

“I know, it’s just…” She huffed.

Sven pressed his nose against her shoulder to try and calm her. Gertrude lifted her head off of Maggie’s lap.

Alex leaned against Sven, taking a few breaths before straightening.

“We’ve thought we won before, only for her to come back stronger. What if she does it again?”

Lucy eyed Sven. She wanted to move closer to Alex, but Sven only let Alex in his pen.

Alex shook her head. “I don’t know if I can do it anymore.”

She had lost too much, had spent too many nights combing through blood soaked battlefields in search for survivors, had spent too many nights sleepless and haunted by nightmares.

“She’s dead, Alex,” Lucy said. “J’onn and M’gann both confirmed it. Her essence is no longer in this realm.”

Alex took a deep breath. She patted Sven’s neck, threw the brush over to the table, and stepped out of the pen, latching it closed behind her.

Lucy reached over, grabbing her hand, intertwining their fingers. She pulled Alex close.

“She’s gone. Come with us to the celebration, fall into bed with us tonight, and try to remember how to live outside of war.”

Maggie stood. She made her way to them and pressed against Alex’s back.

“And if she does come back,” Maggie said. “We’ll be right there with you to defeat her again.”

Alex relaxed back into her. “Alright, I’ll worry about it tomorrow.”

Lucy grinned. Maggie pressed a kiss to her neck.

Then they were pulling her out of the stable, Gertrude close on their heels.

Music strummed through the streets. Kids laughed and ran, wooden swords swinging freely in play. People sat on the edges of roofs, on overturned carriages, on merchant carts.

The streets grew more and more crowded as they made their way to the center of town. The music grew louder.

They finally pushed through the crowd and broke into the plaza.

Dancers circled the plaza, stepping in time with an old tune.

Alex could see Kara and James mixed in the dance. Winn was on the stage with his mandolin.

Alex let Maggie and Lucy pull her into the dance. They fell into step with the other dancers easily, the rhythm known from childhood.

The tension finally seeped from Alex’s muscles. She laughed as they stomped and turned and jumped. Maggie and Lucy spun past her, golden light of the bonfire making their faces glow.

Alex danced and laughed and, for the night, let herself forget and relax.


	18. Shapes - Sanvers, pre-DS, Karolsen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> uh, baby fic, somehow?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ft. Dylan Olsen-Lane, as featured in [this tumblr post](http://nerdsbianhokie.tumblr.com/post/164917621818/baby-fic-apparently) (hit the Dylan tag on the post if you want to see what else there is)

Lucy’s jaw trembled slightly. Her head rested back against the bathroom wall. The three tests were just visible over the edge.

Her heart pounded in her ears. Her chest was tight.

This couldn’t be happening to her. The tests had to be negative.

Her phone beeped.

She took a deep breath, then stood. She turned the timer off and stared at the tests. They laid upside down, results hidden.

Lucy tapped the handle of the closest test. She closed her eyes, took a breath, and flipped it. She took another breath and opened her eyes, zeroing in on the shapes in the small screen.

She flipped over the other two, then stepped away from the counter, hand over her stomach. She stared for a few moments, then turned, leaving the bathroom.

She wandered around the city, not really paying attention to where she was going. Her hand kept migrating to her stomach.

It started to rain as she walked through Esten Park. She pulled her jacket tight around her and went to the first place she could think of.

Which was, thankfully, just a block away from the park.

Alex was surprised when she opened the door, but step aside and let Lucy in without question.

“Something happen?” she asked.

Lucy hugged herself. She stepped around Alex’s apartment, taking in the beer on the counter and dinner still in dishes on the stove.

“Lucy?”

She glanced at Alex before shrugging.

“I, uh, I don’t have a lot of friends in this city,” Lucy said. She looked away from Alex, picking up a picture of a rock formation on the beach, a group of kids at the top. “There’s my ex. There’s the woman I told him to go after when I left him. And there’s you.”

“Lucy?”

Lucy took a deep breath. She rubbed her temple.

“I don’t want to go to James about this yet, and with Kara it’d be weird.” She laughed. “Not that it’s not weird with you. I mean, you are her sister, and we’ve only really seen each other outside of work a few times, and, you know, this was probably a bad idea, I’ll just go. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

She started to move towards the door, but was stopped by Alex’s hand on her shoulder. She let herself be turned.

“What’s wrong?”

Alex’s face was soft, open. Lucy took one breath, another.

“I think I’m pregnant.”

* * *

The gel was cold on Lucy’s stomach. James’ hand rested on her shoulder, Alex’s on her knee.

“Are you interested in learning the sex today?” the technician asked as she spread the gel.

Lucy shook her head. “No.”

The technician nodded. She leaned forward and turned on the sonogram screen.

Lucy stared at the greys and blacks, looking for any baby-esque shapes.

The image shifted.

The breath caught in Lucy’s chest. Alex’s fingers flexed around her knee. James let out a gasp.

“That’s your baby.”

Lucy traced the outline of her baby’s face. Forehead, eyes, nose. A hand curled over the baby’s face.

“Do you want to hear the heartbeat?”

Lucy nodded, not looking away from the screen.

And the room was filled with a steady beat.

A tear slid down her cheek.

“Wow.”

* * *

Lucy let her head fall onto Alex’s shoulder after Alex sat next to her on the floor. Her eyes slid shut.

Alex shifted, pulling her arm from between them and wrapping it around her shoulder.

The room still smelt faintly of fresh paint.

Alex smelt of paint and leather and sweat. Her fingers traced up and down Lucy’s arm.

Lucy was torn between wanting to curl up in Alex’s arms for a nap and wanting to push her over and eat her out.

“I’m going to get more drinks, do either of you want anything?”

Right, Sawyer, Alex’s girlfriend.

“Water,” Lucy said.

“Same,” Alex said. “Thanks, babe.”

Lucy blinked her eyes open, staring at the wall on the other side of the room.

Pale green, large window, white curtains. In one corner, Kara had painted a stack of blocks that was tumbling down the window wall, cubes and cones and various other shapes.

She looked down at the movement in her stomach. She covered the spot with her hand.

“Hey, baby,” she murmured. “Like your room?”

“He’s moving?”

Lucy nodded. She reached for Alex’s hand, covering the spot.

The baby kicked again a few moments later.

Alex grinned. “I feel him.”

“Still convinced it’s a boy?” Lucy asked.

“Yup.”

The baby kicked again.

“See, he agrees with me.”

“Or it’s arguing.”

“You two on this again?” Maggie asked, walking back into the room.

“Lucy just won’t admit I’m right,” Alex said.

Maggie chuckled. She handed Alex the glasses before sitting on Lucy’s other side.

“Wanna feel?” Lucy asked, tilting her head enough so she could keep it on Alex’s shoulder and look at Maggie.

“Um…”

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to, just…”

Lucy smiled. She reached for Maggie’s hand and gently pulled it, setting it against her stomach.

Maggie’s eyes were wide. When the kick came, she jerked her hand away.

Lucy laughed lightly as she pulled Maggie’s hand back. The kicking continued.

“He likes you,” Lucy said.

Maggie grinned.

* * *

Pain and drugs blurred the world. Sweat dripped down Lucy’s brow.

She blinked, lazily following James’ path as he walked around her bed. He passed the bundle he was carrying to her arms.

Lucy stared.

The world focused at one point, laying in her arms, staring up blindly.

She traced the shape of the baby’s face.

_ Her _ baby’s face.

Soft skin beneath the pads of her fingertips. Pursed lips. Giant eyes.

Her baby.

“Hi,” she whispered, all other words fading away. “Hi.”

* * *

Lucy’s hand was firm against Dylan’s back. His head rested on her chest. His leg kicked gently in his sleep.

She held the folder up so she could read the papers over Dylan’s body.

“You want me to take him?”

Lucy looked over at James. She shook her head.

“I’ve got him.”

James smiled. He leaned down, pressing a kiss to the top of Dylan’s head, then to Lucy’s forehead.

“When are you leaving for your date?” Lucy asked.

“Thirty minutes,” James said, sitting on the arm of the couch.

“Where are you taking her?”

“Art museum.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You going to be okay tonight?”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine. Alex and Maggie are coming over. And even if they weren’t, I can handle a night alone with my own baby.”

Sure, the first time would be nerve wracking, but with the amount of people helping, she didn’t think it would happen for a while.

“You ever going to ask them out?” James asked.

Lucy choked on her breath, jerked forward.

Dylan squirmed in her arms, started to cry.

Lucy glared at James, who looked properly apologetic.

“Way to go,” she deadpanned.

“Sorry.”

He stepped forward. “Let me get him back down before I go?”

Lucy handed Dylan over. She sat upright, tossing the file to the table, then stood, stretching.

“I’m serious, though, Luce,” James said, after gently rocking Dylan enough for his cries to stop.

“About what?”

“Alex and Maggie.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. She started to tidy the pile of files.

“You like them. Both of them.”

“Even if you’re right. They are kind of with each other.”

A knock sounded from the door. Lucy made her way over.

“They like you, too,” James called after her.

Lucy ignored him. She opened the door, and grinned at Alex and Maggie on the other said.

“You’re early,” she said.

“We could go and come back,” Alex said, stepping backwards.

Lucy reached forward, grabbed the pizza in her hands and stepped back into the apartment. “Get your ass in here, Danvers.”

“Lucy,” James chided.

Lucy rolled her eyes, but dropped a quarter from the pile on the shelf into the jar next to it after putting the pizza on the kitchen counter.

“I didn’t think you’d still be here,” Alex said to James.

“I’m just getting Dylan back to sleep,” he said. “Then I’m heading out.”

“Kara’s excited, by the way.”

Lucy looked up in time to see the grin on James’ face. She smiled to herself.

It had taken some time, but she no longer felt a pang of jealousy at the sight of James so happy with Kara.

She crossed the apartment, gently resting her hand on James’ elbow before reaching for Dylan. James slid Dylan over to her arms.

“Go. Have fun.”

James grinned. “Thanks, Luce.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her head, then to the back of Dylan’s. “Have a good night, you lot.”

And he was gone.

Lucy looked down at Dylan.

Asleep.

She brushed a finger through his hair before cupping the back of his head.

“Let me go put him down. You two can go ahead and start eating.”

She made her way through the apartment, to her bedroom. She laid Dylan down in his crib, trailed her fingertips up and down his back for a few moments.

His hand twitched.

Lucy pulled back, made sure the monitor was on, and made her way back to the living room.

Maggie and Alex were on the couch, the pizza box open on the coffee table. Alex looked up as she walked in, and scooted so there was a space.

In the middle, between her and Maggie.

Lucy let herself fall into the space, relaxing into their arms.


	19. Art - Alex/Diana

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex finds some art

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've been meaning to actually write something with the [Alex on Themyscira thing](http://nerdsbianhokie.tumblr.com/post/161624527338/but-imagine-flight-237-to-geneva-doesnt-get) I threw out on tumblr ages ago, and it finally happened? What?
> 
> Diana and Themyscira are based more on the post-crisis origin than anything else.

Alex raised her candle higher. She reached out, brushing her fingertips across the faded paint. She traced around a woman’s face, a horse’s back, the edge of a sword.

“It is a story.”

The words in Amazonian Greek were hushed in the dark.

Alex spun, grip on the candle tightening. A hooded figure stepped out of the darkness.

“Our story.”

The hood was lowered.

The princess.

She stepped to the wall, sweeping her hand over the mural.

“We were created by the Goddesses to counter the influence of Ares on Man. Souls of women wronged by men reborn.”

She stepped further into the room, her own torch illuminating more of the wall.

Alex couldn’t pull her eyes from Diana, from the glow of the fire on her skin, the curls framing her face, the dark blue eyes glinting in the light.

They often encountered each other on nights Alex managed to slip past the guard on her door. They spoke, shared information of their worlds, taught each other their languages. Each time, Alex found it hard to both look at and look away from her.

“The Amazons were enslaved by Heracles until my mother led the Amazons in revolt.”

Diana stepped through the light of the moon cast through the window high on the wall.

“They escaped and through the guidance of the Goddesses, found their way here, to Themyscira.”

“Paradise Island,” Alex murmured, finally looking away and back to the painting on the wall in front of her.

The island breaking through the mist of the sea. The waves almost broke, the leaves almost rustled, the clouds almost moved in the flickering firelight.

“Our home,” Diana said.

Alex took a deep breath and quickly glanced out of the corner of her eye as she felt Diana step next to her.

“For thousands of years, we have lived here, separated from the man’s world, until now.”

“Until me.”

Diana hummed.

“And you are far from what any of us might have expected.”

Alex looked to her, looked up at her.

Large blue eyes stared down at her.

“Is that good or bad?” Alex asked.

Diana tucked some of Alex’s hair behind her ear.

“Quite good, in my opinion.”

Diana’s fingers curled down around Alex’s jaw.

That was still a new development, having only started a few weeks ago, and Alex wasn’t thinking about what it meant. She didn’t have to think about what it meant on an island of only women.

Diana’s lips were soft. Her thumb was gentle as it rubbed Alex’s cheek. The wall was hard at Alex’s back as she stepped against it.

She lost herself to the feel of Diana against her, to the warmth and softness.

“Perhaps, Princess-”

Diana jerked back. Alex’s face went red at the sight of Aella in the entrance.

“If you wish to keep this a secret, you should begin to meet outside of the palace.”

“Of course, Aella,” Diana said.

Aella’s focus shifted. “Alexandra, if you please.”

Alex nodded. She looked back to Diana, switching to English for the moment. “I’ll see you later.”

Diana smiled, responded in English as well. “I look forward to it.”

Aella rolled her eyes as Alex walked to her, fell into step next to her as she escorted her back to her room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> big thanks for all the comments.  
> I will hopefully be able to catch up on the days within a day or two.


	20. Wilderness - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex fights to get back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ft Space Pirate Alex _and _Dylan Olsen-Lane cause someone sent me an anon about it on tumblr__

Alex poked the fire with a stick. The log rolled over, sending sparks into the air.

She leaned back to look up at the sky.

Black with bright stars.

It was blue during the day, a difference from many of the planets they had been to recently.

She eyed the stars, doing her best to map them despite the trees.

Alex sighed. She pushed herself up, waved Lyra off when she tried to ask where she was going. She grabbed a torch and walked away from the camp.

She stepped over roots and around bushes.

In the low light of the torch, Alex could imagine she was home, could pretend she was on Earth. In Midvale, maybe, camping in the woods just outside of town.

With Maggie and Lucy.

Maybe James and Kara.

Dylan.

He’d be about a year old.

Alex stepped out of the trees and the illusion of being on Earth faded away.

The cliff dropped away, more forest spread out at the bottom, the tops of the trees glowing a faint blue. A large creature floated through the air at the horizon, cutting through the glowing remnant of the planet’s moon.

Alex hopped up onto a boulder, laying across the top. She breathed deep.

Without the trees, she could make out more stars, more systems.

Sol.

Earth.

Home.

* * *

Dylan was heaviest in his sleep.

Lucy had learned that within months of his birth and he was no longer barely ten pounds. No, his check-up the previous week had put him at 26.9 pounds. A bit light for a three year old, but Lucy’s clavicle still felt like it was going to bruise just from the weight of his head.

A part of her knew she was slowly reaching the point where she wouldn’t be able to hold him at all. She probably had at least another year or two, but she could already feel that ledge approaching.

She hugged him tighter at the thought, turning her head to press a kiss to his hair.

She walked off of the porch, through the yard, and onto the beach. The trip to Midvale for Dylan’s birthday had happened each year so far.

And, each year, the empty space felt bigger and bigger.

The water was cold as it lapped at her feet. She stared up at the stars.

Arms wrapped around her, pulled her into a blanketed embrace. Hands clasped in front of her, holding the blanket shut, Texy, Dylan’s stuffed t-rex dangling from his tail.

“What’s the current estimate?” Maggie asked, soft voice brushing against her neck.

Lucy pointed at a cluster of stars just above the horizon.

“Reports that might match her came from that sector last month,” Lucy said.

Maggie sighed. “So far.”

“But closer.”

Dylan shifted, turning his head to look the other way. Lucy pressed her cheek against the back of his head.

“Just a little bit closer.”

* * *

The vine that brushed against the side of Alex’s face was slimy. Alex jerked away from it. She wiped the slime off of her cheek, and kept going.

Five months.

It had taken her five months to get out of the prison, she wasn’t going to stop for vegetation.

She did, however, pause briefly next to a bioluminescent flower to check to directions etched into the metal of her arm. She squinted up at the sky to check her orientation and set off again.

She marched through the night, stepping over roots, ducking under vines, pressing tight against trees as large creatures slunk past in the shadows.

The sun was rising in the butterscotch sky and the air in her rebreather was stale when she stumbled out of the forest and into the shuttle.

She threw the rebreather aside as soon as the doors were sealed and air flowing.

Lyra was at her side instantly. “What happened to your neck?”

Alex glared at her with what energy she still had.

Her muscles ached. Her feet were numb. The stitches she had given herself in her thigh screamed.

The last thing she wanted to think about was the tattoo forced on her, marking her as one of the higher profile prisoners.

“Just get us to the ship.”

Lyra didn’t press, just made her way to the pilot chair and got the shuttle in the air.

Alex pulled the leg of her jumpsuit up, wincing as it pulled at dried blood. She grimaced at the wound cutting through the tattoo on her ankle, right through the legs of the stuffed t-rex.

She sighed, pulled the leg down and made the mental note to try to send another message to Earth after getting cleaned up in the med bay.

* * *

The freezing winds pulled at Kara’s cape as she scanned the crashed ship from the air. Her chin length hair was held back by a hairband.

There was enough lead in the ship’s hull to keep her from seeing into it, but she could hear movement inside.

“There are survivors,” she said, trusting the com to pick her voice up even with the wind.

_ “Estimated number?”  _ Lucy’s voice crackled through the link.

Kara took a deep breath and focused her hearing. Heartbeats, voices, footsteps. “Unknown,” she said. “But not a small number.”

_ “Aid ETA still an hour out,” _ Lucy said.  _ “Can contact be safely made?” _

Kara scanned the frozen tundra around the ship, listened for any hostility. “I’m going to try.”

_ “Be careful, Supergirl.” _

She took a deep breath, floated back to the ground. Ice crunched beneath her boots. The midnight sun threw her long shadow towards the ship. The head of her shadow barely reached the broken ground around the crash when a figure dropped out of the ship.

Kara froze.

She couldn’t move as Alex walked towards her.

Tell, head shaved on one side, arm glinting in the sunlight. The black tattoo on her neck seemed to soak the sunlight into nothingness. The skin bared by the tank top she was wearing was flush with goose bumps.

Alex stopped barely a foot in front of Kara. She stared for a moment, then threw herself forward, arms going around Kara’s neck.

* * *

Dylan jumped out of the car as soon as Uncle Winn parked in the driveway. His parent’s cars were all there, even Em’s bike inside the open garage, but they had sent Uncle Winn to pick him up from school early.

Uncle Winn had said they had some big news, but wouldn’t say what.

Which was weird, because Uncle Winn usually sucked at keeping secrets.

Dylan crashed through the front door, then froze as all of his parents turned to him.

Except, none of them said anything about him slamming the door.

Which was weird.

They were being weird.

Then, something in a language he didn’t know, in a voice he didn’t recognize broke the silence.

The woman who stood and turned to him was vaguely familiar, but he knew he had never met her. He definitely would have remembered meeting someone with that many tattoos and a metal arm.

“Dylan?” she asked.

He nodded. He glanced at his mom and dad, at Ieiu, and Em.

They were all super happy. Ieiu was practically buzzing in excitement. His mom and Em kept reaching out to touch the woman.

Dylan looked at her again, head tilted.

“Are you Alex?”

She grinned and looked like the woman in the pictures he had been shown his entire life. The woman who was supposed to be his fifth parent before she had been sent away.

He stepped towards her, eyeing her carefully.

She looked scared as he walked towards her.

When he wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face into her stomach, he felt her let out a deep breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea for the neck prison tat really goes to Vi. It glows in the dark and eventually scares the shit out of some alien on Earth who knows what it means.  
> Thanks for all the comments


	21. Language - Alex/Diana

The sun reflected off the ocean. The sky was bright blue and the clouds pure white. The forest around them was deep green with flashes of flowers.

But, Alex couldn’t stop staring at Diana.

Who was taking to English almost as well as Alex was Themysciran Greek.

“You grew up on the ocean?” Diana asked in English.

Alex nodded. She responded in Greek, a method of practice they often used around each other.

“ _ The water there was colder, but I still κολοκύθι often.” _

Diana tilted her head to one side. She gently laughed.

“You mean swim?” she asked. “κολυμπώ?”

“ _ What did I say?” _

“ κολοκύθι _.  _ It is…” Diana blinked. She looked out at the ocean for a moment. “A food. You called them vegetables, πιστεύω. It is a type of vegetable.”

Alex ducked her head.

The blush rising up her neck grew stronger as Diana’s lips pressed against her cheek.

* * *

Lucy narrowed her eyes.

Danvers was watching her, smirking, and talking to that Amazon in that Amazon language. Lucy knew it was in the same family as Greek, but had branched off millennia ago.

Really, that corner of the DEO gym was full of impossibilities.

Not quite so dead agent.

Princess of a hidden island of immortal women.

And, Danvers was walking towards her.

She really wasn't fair.

Tall enough that Lucy had to look up at her, but not so tall she had to strain her neck. Chiseled abs. Toned legs. Arms Lucy struggled to not stare at.

All on display in the shorts and sports bra Danvers wore.

Never mind the dark brown eyes and easy smile and that voice as she spoke in that language.

Like she was at the moment.

Lucy raised an eyebrow, unwilling to let on how much the voice and the smirk and the muscles got to her.

“I've told you before,” she said, “hot as it is, I don't speak that.”

Danvers smirked, said something else.

“She says she thinks you are beautiful,” Diana called from where she leaned against the wall.

A faint blush rose up Danvers’ neck.

Lucy smirked. “You aren't that bad yourself,” she replied.

“She wishes to ask you on a date, but is unsure of how you react considering her relationship with me.”

Danvers’ head snapped to the side 

“Diana!”

The princess just grinned at her. “On Themyscira, things are not quite so…” Her head tilted slightly, her nose crinkled. “Restrictive. Many had relationships with more than one other.”

Lucy leaned towards Danvers.

“Try asking me one day, you may like the answer.”

She let her fingers trail along Danvers’ abs as she stepped away, the feel of them burned into her skin as she stalked out of the gym.

* * *

The door was silent as Diana pushed it open. She slipped inside, setting her key on the table just inside.

The apartment was dark. Alex was asleep on the couch, Lucy laying on top of her.

Diana smiled, quietly made her way across the apartment.

She had been away for months, learning of the Man’s World, searching for her way to fulfill her duty. The entire time, however, her heart had ached, to return to Themyscira, to return to Alex in National City.

The knowledge that she wasn’t alone eased the pain. Alex had her sister, and Lucy.

And, possibly, the detective she had started to talk about the last few weeks.

Diana knelt by the couch, brushed some of Alex’s hair out of her face to press a kiss to her forehead.

Alex’s eyes blinked open, heavy in sleep.

“Di’na?”

Diana smiled. “Koimámai,” she murmured.  _ Sleep. _

“Se agapó,” Alex murmured, eyes slipping closed again.  _ I love you. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> κολοκύθι - zucchini   
> πιστεύω - I believe


	22. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It can be found [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15053000)

So, I kinda accidentally did something for this that I wasn't expecting to be for this. It's part of what will be a longer series, and planned that way, then I realized it worked for this?


	23. Club

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *shrug emoji*

Maggie glanced past the open door of her locker. The poster on the classroom dood was loud, colorful, so very inviting.

She mentally shook her head, refocusing in her books and binders. She put her history book inside and pulled out her math book.

That club was dangerous.

If anyone found out she went.

If her father found out…

Movement pulled her attention. She watched out of the corner of her eye as someone walked into the room.

Braver than her.

She grabbed a notebook, then closed her locker.

She glanced at the poster, the rainbows and symbols and words in glitter paint.

But, it was California, not Nebraska.

She stepped towards the room, then froze.

A crowd of students turned the far corner, laughing and joking with each other.

Maggie spun on her heels. She hurried down the hall, pushing through the next door with a club poster.

The small group inside froze, wide eyes staring at her over the game on the desks shoved together.

“Is that Pandemic?” she asked.

“Yes,” one of them, a boy she didn't recognize, slowly answered. “You here for Zombie Survival Club?”

Now Maggie stared. “Zombie Survival Club?”

“There’s a story about the name,” one of the girls said. Lucy was in her biology class.

“I’m sure,” Maggie replied. “That doesn’t look much like zombie survival.”

“It is if you act like they’re zombie outbreaks instead of infections,” another said. Alex Danvers. Sat in front of her in English.

“Wanna join?” That was Kara, Alex’s little sister.

Maggie glanced at the door, then shrugged. “Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers, it's really a 'we all secretly want to be part of the gsa but can't or won't for whatever reason' club, only they don't all know that.


	24. Color - ft Dylan Olsen-Lane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex had a tattoo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this](http://nerdsbianhokie.tumblr.com/post/175294374763/tastefullyoffensive-via-rebellenoire) post on Tumblr

Alex flipped to the next paper. A lock of hair fell in front of her face. Alex blew at it before tucking it back behind her ear.

She felt the presence next to her, but ignored it. She could just see Dylan bouncing, waiting for her to notice.

“Opie?”

She smiled, turning her head to look at him, and raised an eyebrow.

“Yes?”

“Can I color your arm?”

Alex glanced at the tub of markers in his hands, then to the tattoo on her arm.

Gotten while she was in grad school, on a drunken dare, she had never gone back to get it colore. Over the years, she had grown to like look of it as line art, a Kryptonian DNA strand unzipped and turning into stars as it wound up her arm from wrist to shoulder..

And, since he had first discovered coloring books, Dylan had decided that the line art meant it was a perfect thing to color.

“Sure, kid.”

She scooted over on the chair, then lifted him up next to her. She pushed the files to the side, and pulled her laptop closer before letting him pull her arm into his lap.

“No looking, kay?”

“Promise.”

Alex turned her focus back to her research, the brush of felt tip on her skin and occasionally muttering from the six year old not enough to fully grab her attention.

Eventually, small fingers brushed over her forearm before moving it back to her lap.

“Can I color the stars, too?”

Alex nodded. Together, they pushed her sleeve up enough to reveal the rest of the tattoo.

Dylan shifted so he was on his knees, feet hanging off the side of the chair.

Movement from across the room pulled Alex’s attention. She looked up to see James, camera raised as he took pictures of the scene.

Alex rolled her eyes, but grinned.

“I’m done,” Dylan announced. “You can look now.”

Alex looked. She grinned.

The DNA was red and blue and purple. The stars were green.

“I love it,” she told him.

Dylan grinned.

An arm slid over her shoulder from behind as Lucy leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of Dylan’s head.

“I colored Opie’s arm!” Dylan announced.

“It’s beautiful, baby.” She brushed some curls out of his face. “Are you ready for dinner?”

“Chicken nuggets?”

“Not tonight. Emem made lasagna.”

Dylan tilted his head.

“The fancy mac and cheese with the red sauce,” Alex said.

Dylan’s face lit up. He practically fell out of the chair before running to the kitchen, James following close behind.

Lucy slid her second arm around Alex, leaning into her, pressing a kiss to the back of her neck, then just rested for a moment before stepping away.

“Want a picture of it before dinner?” she asked, trailing an arm down Alex’s arm.

“Please.”

Lucy pulled out her phone. She took a few close up shots, then pulled Alex to her feet.

“Now, model.”

“Model?”

“Yeah.”

Alex crossed her arms, raised an eyebrow.

“Please?” Lucy’s eyes were wide, pleading. “The one pose?”

Alex rolled her eyes. She turned so her arm was towards Lucy, then lifted it. She turned her head away slightly and buried her hand in her hair and flexed.

She held the pose for a moment before dropping it and stepping towards Lucy.

“How was that?” she asked, hands settling on Lucy’s hips.

Lucy stretched up to kiss her.

“Perfect.”


	25. Blanket - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy takes pictures

Golden light of dusk poured through the window, cut into streams by the sheer curtains and speckled with swirling dust.

Lucy looked over the top of the camera. Her finger circled around the shutter release.

Smooth skin. Dark hair. Strategically placed blankets.

Lucy stepped towards the bed, setting the camera on the nightstand.

A finger trailed up soft fabric, slid over warm skin.

She hooked her finger under the edge of the blanket and pulled it slightly.

Alex shifted. Lucy brushed her fingers over her bare shoulder.

“Stay still,” she murmured.

“Been staying still for ages,” Alex grumbled.

Maggie chuckled, fingers flexing in Alex’s hair.

“I’m almost done,” Lucy said. She picked the camera up. “With this set, at least.”

“This set?” Alex asked.

Lucy nodded. She looked through the viewfinder, pressed the shutter release.

“What’s the next set?” Maggie pushed.

Lucy smirked over the camera. “I take away the blankets.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a hc that James taught Lucy some photography stuff while they were together, and she uses it to her advantage with her girls.


	26. Remembering - Directorship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Small part of a Mass Effect au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set between ME and ME2. This does include major character death, but, if you know the plot of Mass Effect 2, you know it isn't permanent.

Lucy’s shoulders were square, her back straight, and her heart heavy.

She clung to the corner of the room, trying to forget the speeches at the ceremony.

They told of how the commander was a testament to humanity, how her absence the past year had been sorely missed, how how how

Anger bubbled in Lucy.

Most of them had never met Alex, and those who had only used her for their own agendas.

Were still only using her for their own agendas.

“I believe you humans call this ‘political bullshit’.”

Lucy scoffed, then glanced over at Garrus as he stepped up to her.

"Do Turians not?"

His mandibles shifted in a way she knew meant he was agreeing.

“Want to go to the real party?”

Lucy glanced around at the Alliance uniforms and occasional alien amongst the humans.

“Please.”

A quick trip away from the Presidium, and Garrus was leading her through an alley in the Wards.

“It was very last minute,” he said. “And we couldn’t get a hold of you for planning.”

Lucy shrugged. She may have let her contact with the rest of the team fade after the attack.

Garrus led her into a small apartment. Music bled into the hallway when he opened the door.

Loud, fast, with lyrics practically being screamed.

Alex’s music.

The apartment was too small for the amount of people gathered inside, but that didn’t seem to be stopping any of them.

Tali was sitting on what was supposed to be the kitchen counter, slurring her words as she talked to Wrex. Liara and Winn were on the couch, just staring at the wall as they drank.

Dr. Hamilton stepped up to them, getting close so she could be heard over the music.

“It’s good to see you, Gunnery Chief,” she said, pressing a drink into Lucy’s hand.

“You too, Doctor.”

The night turned into a haze of heavy base and Drell rum. Lucy ended up in a corner, on the floor between the entertainment system and the wall.

When the music shut off, the silence was deafening.

Liara turned from the music system, bottle raised. “To Danvers.”

Everyone raised their drinks as well.

Lucy stared at hers as she kept it in her lap.

One year.

One year since she had been happy.

One year since she had woken up in Alex’s quarters.

One year since she had watched the love of her life falling through space.

She lifted her glass, stared as it blurred into the wall past it.

“To Danvers,” she murmured, then took a drink.


	27. Nickname

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fragment of an Incredibles au?

Alex let the fabric slip through her fingers. Gossamer, a blue dark enough to almost look black with an equally dark red cross on the shoulder.

“Are you sure about this?”

Alex looked up at Cat. The woman was watching her over her cup of tea.

“I don’t have a choice,” Alex said.

“Of course you have a choice,” Cat said. She set her cup down and stood. “You always have a choice.”

“It’s not my choice to keep my powers hidden.”

Cat hummed. “Of course it is, but the presented outcomes push you towards a specific choice.”

Alex looked down at the suit again.

When she was little, she would sneak into her parent’s hidden room and use their old supersuits as blankets for her naps. She would imagine what her own suit could look like, bundled up in the fabric and doodling on paper.

They had always been white, the fabric loose, based on doctors uniforms.

This...this was the opposite of that.

“I have to do this,” she said.

“Why?”

“He’s my father.”

“And you have no useful powers in a fight.”

“Don’t need powers to know how to fight.” She pulled at the shoulder of the usit, stretching out the red cross there. “And, with the powers I have, I’m really hard to kill.”

“You think. It hasn’t exactly been tested, has it?”

“It’s been tested enough.”

Playground fights, a car crash, throwing herself off of a cliff and hitting the water wrong. The pain had been there, but her body fixed itself before she reached death.

“You could die.”

Alex looked up at Cat. “Then I die.”

Cat nodded. “I can get you there, but there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to get you out.”

Alex took a deep breath.

“And you will leave me with the unfortunate job of telling your mother what happened.”

Alex looked away, thought of her family. Her mother, struggling to hold together after her father had vanished. Kara, still adjusting to this new planet. Clark, who they knew would eventually get his own powers.

Her father, lost somewhere to a madman who seemed to be preying on Supers in hiding.

“I have to do this.”

“Well, if you’re sure, all you need is a superhero name.”

Alex looked down at the suit, ran her thumb over the cross.

“Nightingale.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super short, I know. The thought for this is an Incredibles au. Set in the 60s, Jeremiah and Eliza are former Supers in hiding after Supers were made illegal. Jeremiah is lured in by this universes version of Syndrome, and doesn't come home. Alex, about 19 years old, goes out to find him.
> 
> Alex's powers are life force manipulation, but at this point, only healing and self-regeneration have manifested themselves.


	28. Wedding - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tale of two weddings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in the star mates verse

Alex’s tongue stuck out of her mouth. She threaded the stem of one flower through the hole in the stem of the other. She carefully looped the chain around and connected the flowers at the ends.

“Done!” she announced, lifting it up.

Lucy looked up from the flower crown she was making and huffed. Alex leaned over and put the crown on Lucy’s head. Lucy’s frown turned into a smile.

“Why’re you both wearing flowers?” Susan asked.

Alex pulled a face. “Because the girls wear flowers, duh.”

Susan looked confused. “Aunt Cindy didn’t. She wore pants when she married Cassie.”

“I thought girls had to wear dresses,” Lucy said.

“Girls wear dresses,” Vicky said.

Susan shook her head. “Aunt Cindy didn’t.”

“Maybe Aunt Cindy isn’t a real girl.”

“She is too a girl!”

“What if just Alex wears the flowers?”

They stopped and looked at James.

“Then Lucy's wearing a dress and Alex’s wearing flowers.”

Alex looked down at her shorts. One knee was a little cut from where she had fallen earlier but hadn’t gone inside.

Vicky huffed. “Fine.”

Lucy lifted the flowers off of her head, and put them on Alex’s.

“Now what?” Vicky asked.

Alex tried to remember the wedding she and Lucy had watched. “Now, someone stands there,” she pointed up the yard, to the plastic chairs and benches they had gathered. A variety of stuffed animals and dolls sat in the seats. “And me and Lucy walk to them. They ask if we’re gunna be friends forever and we say the magic words.”

“Magic words?” James asked.

“Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s...bangarang bangarang you’re my bestest friend forever.”

“That’s not the magic words,” Vicky said.

“Have you seen a wedding?”

“No.”

“Well, I have, and those are the words.”

“Can I be the standing person?” James asked.

“Yeah,” Lucy answered. “So, Vicky, Susan, you sit and clap at the end.”

“That’s boooooring,” Susan whined.

“You can be one of the marry-ers next,” Alex said. “And can turn the music on and off.”

“Okay.”

“Go to your places,” Lucy said. Her voice was louder, like it always was when she copied her dance teacher.

James walked to the end of the chairs. Vicky and Susan sat on the front seats. Susan put the tape player to her lap, and pressed play.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo started.

Alex grabbed Lucy’s hand. They walked towards James.

He grinned at them when they reached him.

“Lucy. Alex. Are you going to be friends forever?”

“Lucy Lane!”

Lucy spun, then started running. “Daddy!”

Alex turned to see her jump into her father’s arms.

The man looked scary, in his soldier clothes and the way he always looked mad.

Lucy waved at them as he carried her towards their house.

* * *

Alex pressed a hand to her diaphragm, pushing into her palm as she took a deep breath, and a second.

Her stomach churned and twisted and…

She was getting married.

Or, well, committed, because the legal system was ready to acknowledge polyamorous relationships.

But, still, she was going to stand in front of her friends and family and announce that she was committed to her wives.

Her wives.

They were going to be her wives.

The opened her eyes, stared into the mirror. There wasn’t a wrinkle on her suit or tallit. Her make-up was perfect. Not a hair was out of place.

Everything was going to go right. It was going to be perfect.

Someone knocked on her door, then pushed inside.

Her mother.

Alex let out a breath. She tried to smile, but couldn’t as her eyes went wide.

“This is really going to happen,” she said, still trying to focus on her breathing.

Eliza nodded, stepped closer. “It really is.”

“I’m going to marry them.”

“You are.”

Alex’s looked around the room, gaze never stopping anywhere for more than a moment, before she focused on her mother.

“I’ve never been so happy.”

Eliza grinned. She pressed her hand to the side of Alex’s face, them pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“I have something for you.”

Alex watched as she reached into her small clutch and pulled out a picture. Eliza smiled as she looked at it.

“I don’t know if you remember, but you and Lucy tried to get married before.”

Alex took the picture.

Clearly dated, from the coloring and bright plastic toys scattered in the grass. There were a few people in the picture, but her focus went right to the girls in the center.

Her, with a wonky flower crown and a trail of dried blood dripping down her knee.

Lucy, in a bright pink dress.

“Your father took this, right before…”

“General Lane.”

It made more sense than it had then, how angry he had looked when he had carried Lucy away that day.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen two people more fated than you and Lucy.”

Alex simultaneously felt warmth at the thought, and a deep need to defend Maggie.

“And with Maggie as well,” Eliza continued. “Alex, I don’t think you could have gotten luckier.”

“I don’t deserve them.”

“Oh, sweetie, you deserve nothing less than them.”

Alex nodded, still staring at the picture. She took in the other details, and laughed.

“Was James really our fake officiant?”

He was out there, waiting for them, the officiant of their actual wedding.

“He was.”

Alex trailed her finger tips over her and Lucy, then looked up at her mother.

“Thank you.”

“Are you ready?”

Alex took a deep breath, then nodded. “I guess i always have been.”


	29. Storm - bg Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ft. Gertrude the service borzoi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspired by [this](https://78.media.tumblr.com/fece7725f039734d53e21d63c676073c/tumblr_messaging_pb7m5kOSYt1rom0kd_1280.png)

Alex settled, resting against the tub, slipping further into the water. It was hot, her skin already turning red, the steam swirling as it rose from the water surface.

Another clap of thunder sounded from outside.

Alex sunk further into the water.

She had never had issues with storms. As a child, she would watch the rain over the ocean until her father pulled her from the window. As a teenager, lightning had struck the sand just a few feet from where she had been sitting, watching.

She had been enchanted by their power, entranced by their beauty. Getting caught in one had never bothered her.

Until two weeks back, during the last storm.

The first storm since  _ it  _ had happened.

The cold water soaking her socks.

The cold water down the back of her shirt.

The cold water.

Cold water.

She had barely gotten back to the apartment, Gertrude pressed against her side the entire way, before collapsing into bed, completely soaked. She barely remembered Lucy and Maggie coaxing her into dry clothes at some point that night.

Another clap of thunder.

They weren’t home tonight, both stuck at work.

So, a hot bath, to negate the feel of cold water rising up around her feet, clinging to her as she laid on concrete floor.

Movement pulled her attention to the door.

To the door opening.

Alex’s heart beat in her ears. She reached for the closest shampoo bottle and razer.

Gertrude slunk into the bathroom.

Because she had been trained on how to open doors.

Alex let out a breath. She put the items back.

“Hey, girl,” she murmured.

Gertrude stepped up to the tub, resting her head on the edge. Alex scratched the top of her head.

“Not a fan either?”

Another clap of thunder.

And Gertrude stepped into the tub.

Before Alex could protest, she had eighty pounds of wet dog sprawled over her.

She sighed. There was no changing it now.

She scratched behind Gertrude’s ears.

“Thanks, girl.”


	30. Last Goodbye - Director Sanvers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people come back into Maggie's life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst

itching

burning

crawling

you want to tear off your skin

rip it to shreds

make it right

she survived

she survived

that needs to be rectified

\---

It’s warm.

Sun streaming through the window.

Three bodies under the covers.

Two dogs stretched across the foot of the bed.

Buzzing pulled Maggie from her sleep enough to be aware of Alex rolling over, reaching for the phone. Maggie curled tighter into Lucy on her other side.

It was her turn in the middle and she loved every moment of it.

The phone pushed into the side of her head? That she loved less.

“Yer phone,” Alex mumbled as she laid back down.

Maggie sat up, then squinted at the phone for a moment.

Alex had answered it before realizing whose phone it was.

“Sawyer?” Maggie said after pressing it to her ear.

_“Hello, Detective.”_

Her entire body froze.

_“Or, Captain, I suppose. Congratulations_.”

She fought for each breath.

_“I would have gotten you a gift for the occasion, but I was a bit busy, being incarcerated for killing you. Or, so I thought.”_

She flinched away from the hands on her back before realizing it was just her girlfriends.

“What do you want?” she forced out.

_“I’m one mark off, Detective. I am sure you can figure out what I need, so I suggest you start saying your goodbyes.”_

The line went dead.

Maggie lowered her phone to her lap, stared at the wall.

Hands ran up and down her back, her name spoken by her girlfriends fell to the background. Ripley moved up the bed and flopped down in her lap.

“We need to get to the station,” she said.

She hugged Ripley to her chest as she scooted across the bed, only to freeze at the knocks from the door.

“I’ll get it,” Alex said.

“No,” Maggie objected.

She passed Ripley to Lucy. Her legs were surprisingly steady as she stood. Her heart raced as she bent down to pull the gun box from under the bed.

He wasn’t there.

She put the box on the bed, pushing Gertrudes head back when she tried to peer over the lid.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked. “Who was that.”

Maggie shook her head, focused on loading her glock. “Just, wait here. Get your guns ready, clear this room. If you hear me shooting, come out ready for a fight.”

She was out of the room before they could protest.

A brief sweep of the living room, the kitchen. A glance out onto the balcony, into the bathroom.

All clear.

Her knuckles were white around the grip of her gun as she stepped towards the door. She looked through the peephole.

Red hair.

Pale skin.

She knocked on the door. Two slow beats.

The response, three fast.

She opened the door.

“I’m guessing you heard,” Kate said.

“When did he escape?” Maggie asked.

“Early this morning, barely five hours ago.” Kate looked up and down the hallway. “Can I come in?”

Maggie nodded. She stepped aside, and checked the hallway herself once Kate was inside.

Clear.

She closed the door, flicked the safety back on, and set the gun on the key table.

“I got on the jet as soon as we heard about his escape,” Kate said. “Thought it would be better to tell you in person.”

“Yeah, well, he called me.” She hugged herself.

“Who?”

She looked to Alex and Lucy, standing in the bedroom doorway. She rubbed the scar on her chest through her shirt.

“You two ever hear about Zsasz?”

Their faces paled.

“The serial killer?” Lucy asked.

Maggie nodded. “He tried to kill me, while I was in Gotham.”

She could see the tension in Kate. They had been dating when it happened, and Kate never seemed to forgive herself for not checking on Maggie sooner that night.

“He, uh, cuts himself, for each kill. And, I guess he never got the news that I didn’t die, so he needs to kill me so the number of cuts is right.”

She avoided all of their looks, just hugged herself and rubbed the scar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been playing the Arkham games, and Zsasz is in them, and I ended up looking him up, and there was an arch this is loosely based on, when he thought he killed Alfred, only Alfred survived, and Bruce used that to draw Zsasz back out, because he has to be accurate and stuff.
> 
> This is one I've had tossing around my head every now and then since I started the games. Wouldn't mind actually getting into it one day.


	31. Bonus Last Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A funeral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Sandstonesunspear answered fluff when i asked if I should do angst or fluff for this last prompt, but the angst idea hit me first, so y'all just get two.

Lucy took a deep breath. She lowered Keith into the box and started to recite.

“Farewell to thee! but not farewell, to all my fondest thoughts of thee.”

She sprinkled a few rose petals into the box with Keith.

“Within my heart they still shall dwell; and they shall cheer and comfort me.”

Alex rolled her eyes. Maggie discreetly elbowed her.

“O, beautiful, and full of grace! If thou hadst never met mine eye.”

Lucy closed the lid, securing it with a few pieces of tap.

“I had not dreamed a living face, could fancied charms so far outvie.” Lucy looked up at them after finishing the poem. “Have you any words for the deceased?”

Alex shook her head, just doing her best to not burst out laughing.

Maggie stepped forward, put a hand on the box.

“Keith, you were always the life of the party. You were never afraid to let your true vibracy show and never shied away when we wanted to take things to another level of intensity. Your ability to get deep when needed will never be forgotten, nor your ability to truly focus on the key point. You will be missed.”

Lucy nodded. “Touching.”

She picked up the box, and slowly walked across the apartment.

“Fair travels, Keith,” she said, before dropping the box into the trash can.

She turned back to her girlfriends, and rolled her eyes. “You can laugh now, Alex.”

Alex waved her hand. “I’m trying not to, but we just…” She waved her hand a bit more.

“Had a funeral for a vibrator?” Lucy offered.

Alex nodded. “Yeah. That is a thing we just did.”

Maggie slid her arms around Alex’s waist from behind. “Does this mean we can go start breaking in the new one?”

“You mean Lucas? Yes, we can,” Lucy answered.

“We are not giving this one a name,” Alex protested as she let them drag her towards the bedroom.

“Too late.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem is 'Farewell' by Anne Brontë

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it.
> 
> Big thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. It means so much. A few of the aus I have here will possibly be expanded elsewhere, so keep an eye out for that.
> 
> Thank you :D


End file.
